Any word on an academic upgrade price FCS 3

I know it was brought up before. Has this been confirmed yet?

Yes. The academic version cannot be upgraded to a retail version so its not wise for anyone to buy the academic version if he/she will one day leave school and pursue a career using FCS.

Michael Horton
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I still cannot believe that. I am currently using fully updated Adobe software that started out years ago as a $99 student version. Apple really stunk it up with this decision.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I have to agree. Haven't heard one single good reason for any student or faculty member to now buy the EDU version. Wish some teachers and Administrators would chime in here and educate us.

Michael Horton
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It's not a new decision though, is it? I thought it was always the case that academic licenses are not eligible for upgrades.

Not that I'm defending the choice or anything.

No its not new. What is new is the price. Went up $300 from last version. Thus the reason not to buy it. Was $599 and now $899. The math suggests you are math challenged if you buy the EDU version.

Michael Horton
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Yeah, I don't disagree with any of that. Like I said, I was just making sure I wasn't mistaken about the fact that this is an old policy.

And frankly, I can kind of understand the no-upgrades thing. The academic version of Final Cut is, as far as I know, fully featured in every way. I believe it's bit-for-bit identical to the regular version, except for having a different license code.

Given that, there's nothing stopping somebody (say me) from finding an intern with a valid student ID, getting her to buy it for me, then buying upgrade licenses every couple years forever, ending up with a fully functional (and profitable) Final Cut suite without ever paying for a production license.

So the "no upgrades for you, kiddo" thing doesn't bother me.

My question, though, is whether Apple raised the academic price of Final Cut 7 because they were selling too many academic licenses, or too few? I figure it had to have been one or the other, else why change the discount at all?

All I know is they raised the price after 8 years of a pretty good deal for the EDU folks. But you make a good point and I'm sure many took advantage of that.

Michael Horton
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