Welcome to the world of FCP A la Carte

Read something yesterday that made a lot of sense and hadn't seen it discussed here yet.

I refuse to believe that Apple has completely forsaken the pro base. I share the theory that they're attempting to reach both markets (pro and not) with the same core software - FCPX. Gone are the days you'd drop $1k for the complete Studio box, and we're entering a world of a la carte FCP.

Need XML in your workflow (or whatever new thing they're reportedly developing)? Download it from the App Store for $29.
Need to open legacy projects in X? Download the wrapper from the App Store for $19.
Need layered PSDs? Download the Adobe plug-in from the App Store for $49.

Make sense? Under this model, hobbyists can purchase the core software for $299 and do their thing, while pros can purchase the same core software and then purchase the essential add-ons or "Apps" to upgrade the core software to their needs.

Of course all of your purchases are linked to your Apple ID, so if you find yourself freelancing in a bay without something you've already purchased, just log into the App Store and re-download it, or grab it from "the cloud".

Interesting.
This is similar to what Digidesign/Avid has done with Pro Tools 9.

PT is no longer tied to Digi hardware, and they've finally caught up to other DAW's in certain features as standard,
but the complete feature set is only available as a rather expensive plug-in package.

Digidesign has been headed down that road with the Music and DV Toolkits for PT LE for quite some time,
and it has worked surprisingly well.

If that's the course FCPX is taking, it might not be so bad- just, well,
*awkward* after having such a fine solution for all this time.

tc

If this is what Apple intend, wouldn't have made sense for them to say so from the git' go? It certainly would have worked to relieve the anxieties of professionals who depend of the product. It certainly would have fit with their representation of the product as new, indeed "revolutionary."

The easy answer is that it's not Apple's MO to let anyone know what they're thinking.

>so if you find yourself freelancing in a bay without something you've already purchased, just log
>into the App Store and re-download it, or grab it from "the cloud".

And what happens after you leave the bay? Will the plugins still remain in the machine? What happens if the machine does not have the latest version of iTunes?



www.strypesinpost.com

Apps aren't downloaded from iTunes. They're purchased through a little stand-alone widget thing called the App Store that showed up in one of the last couple of point releases in Snow Leopard. You can't purchase X without it.

Obviously I don't have all the answers, but after playing around in X for a few hours last night I'm hopeful that Apple is keeping our market in mind because I want to see it mature into a useful tool in my world.