Apple’s Final Cut Pro X is cheaper, but is it ‘dumbed down’?

I admit it, I own several Apple Macintosh computers. Before you all send me hate mail however – in my defense I am a child of the Unix era, and find that OSX suits my needs more than Windows. I don't game much, and I like the robustness of the latest OSX platform.

I have noticed that Apple in recent months seem to be promoting their software heavily on the App Store. Yesterday while I was browsing for new things to play with, I stumbled upon Final Cut Pro X, which was being offered as a downloadable package direct from the App Store. £180 is a hell of an investment and one of the most expensive packages I have seen Apple offering in recent months.

This isn't the first step that Apple have taken in trying to kill off expensive in store boxed set software package deals. While £180 seems like a massive amount of money to spend, the high end video application used to cost £835. Why the price cut? Well, Apple are bundling some other ‘optional' extras in the store, at additional cost. With Motion 5 and Compressor 4 also offered at £30 each, the cost is still much less than the previous versions.

Apple are trying to drive the Macintosh sales into the video editing market. Apple's Phil Schiller feels positive about the new software saying “Final Cut Pro X is the biggest advance in Pro video editing since the original Final Cut Pro. We have shown it to many of the world’s best Pro editors, and their jaws have dropped.”

Unfortunately for Apple, the comments on their store page aren't quite so positive. Professional editors are saying it is iMovie on steroids and that it doesn't do what they need anymore. With an overall score right now of 3 out of 5, it appears that Apple might not be releasing what the public need.

Users complain of removed functionality and a lack of support for some serious editing demands. We would hate to say its a ‘dumbed down' version, but the customer views certainly might be explaining why the price has dropped so sharply with the current release.

Kitguru says: Are you happy with spending £200 for online packages with no box art and printed manual? share your views

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