FCP v Premiere v Resolve v iMovie

I can't help but think Apple has lost focus of any business model with FCP and its ProApps.

The dependency on plugins to perform functions that should otherwise be inbuilt can be a serious problem in many professional work environments.
Apple changes something about the plugin architecture and there's a wait for developers to update.
Multiple competing plugins mean a lack of uniformity in attempting to perform some tasks when working in groups.
It means that everyone on a team must have access to the same plugins.
As a result, FCP is limited primarily to solo users.
Ironically one of the niceties of Motion is the ability to design and distribute certain functions, creating deliberate limitations, to teams so all would be working with similar parameters to a standard. Yet so many other competing plugins make this overall workflow difficult.

Regarding the business model FCP, unlike Avid, Premiere, Resolve, is not cross-platform. This means it should attract users to be Mac exclusive or, at least Mac dominant to be of value for a company that makes money on hardware. Yet the apparent "weak" interest compared to other NLE and Post tools means it's not doing as well at achieving this as it could.

FCP has the advantage of being tuned to Mac hardware but it seems Resolve is moving quickly to be competitive in that area. Of course, this is only important to the extent Apple hardware has a big advantage over Windows boxes. But that hardware advantage is only valuable to the extent the software is attractive. It seems though FCP is becoming less attractive over time.

It seems Adobe and Blackmagic have used steady improvements to maintain or grow interest whereas Apple has long periods of stagnation. I'm not sure Apple's "wait for the big upgrade" strategy is viable. New features either solve problems or add convenience (assuming they're not bug-riddled) and editors start looking at Resolve, Premiere (and Avid in collaborative environments) as FCP has brick walls left standing for years at a time. This also results in eroding confidence. In addition, "the big upgrade" strategy creates a mountain to climb if post environments have to deal with all the changes, education, uncertainty in untested features.

I can't help but feel that Apple needs to do a serious rethink if FCP and the ProApps are to attract users to Mac hardware. The magnetic timeline and trackless environment can only carry so far and those are the oldest features in this generation of FCP.

I can tell you that the pro apps dev teams are not small, but are separated from each other, and they are often pulled to work on other non-app projects.

I think the decline was a result of Apple's horrible hardware decisions and bad management that lasted for years (overheating laptops, faulty keyboards and other hardware problems, overpricing, bad after sales service).
FCP is Mac-only software and if you drive customers away, along with the hardware they drop the software as well.
Davinci Resolve and Premiere are platform agnostic.

iannis.maragakis wrote: I think the decline was a result of Apple's horrible hardware decisions and bad management that lasted for years (overheating laptops, faulty keyboards and other hardware problems, overpricing, bad after sales service).
FCP is Mac-only software and if you drive customers away, along with the hardware they drop the software as well.
Davinci Resolve and Premiere are platform agnostic.

I suspect Apple believes moving to its own chips will be a major price/performance hardware advantage. Of course, such an advantage is only as good as the software that takes advantage of it. Ironically Apple has actually thrown hurdles against FCP because it is dependent on plugins that means the plugin developers must also take advantage of the hardware. It would certainly be ironic to find Resolve takes better advantage of the Apple Silicon than FCP which, of course, leaves the door open for Windows given Resolve is cross-platform.

Again I'm honestly not sure Apple really has a good business model on all this. 

iannis.maragakis wrote: I think the decline was a result of Apple's horrible hardware decisions and bad management that lasted for years (overheating laptops, faulty keyboards and other hardware problems, overpricing, bad after sales service).
FCP is Mac-only software and if you drive customers away, along with the hardware they drop the software as well.
Davinci Resolve and Premiere are platform agnostic.

I suspect Apple believes moving to its own chips will be a major price/performance hardware advantage. Of course, such an advantage is only as good as the software that takes advantage of it. Ironically Apple has actually thrown hurdles against FCP because it is dependent on plugins that means the plugin developers must also take advantage of the hardware. It would certainly be ironic to find Resolve takes better advantage of the Apple Silicon than FCP which, of course, leaves the door open for Windows given Resolve is cross-platform.

Again I'm honestly not sure Apple really has a good business model on all this.