Final Cut Studio won't be dumbed down
On Tuesday, Appleinsider wrote that Apple's Final Cut team may refocus the application suite's focus from its current professional target to a more "prosumer" type of customer. Since then, many avid Final Cut Studio users have lamented the possibility of an iMovie 8-style "dumbing down" of the video editing suite, fearing that Apple's catering to "prosumer" users would mean excising the "pro" from Final Cut Pro.
Apple spokesman Bill Evans told CNET that's not going to happen. He stresses Apple's commitment to its professional video editor customers and says, "The next version of Final Cut is going to be awesome, and our pro customers are going to love it." This echoes remarks from a Steve Jobs e-mail last month, where he assured a concerned Final Cut Pro user that people removed from the Final Cut team "were in support, not engineering." "Next release will be awesome," Jobs said.
It may be the case that Apple is focusing on making Final Cut Express more user-friendly for those used to the simpler interface of iMovie, while still maintaining the features professionals have demanded of Final Cut Studio. Hopefully we should know one way or the other soon; Final Cut Studio's last update was July 23 of last year.
