Consumer Vs. Professional

As many of you already know, Apple surprised us all last year by opting for a more consumer-friendly route with Final Cut Pro X - so it should come as no surprise that other companies, such as Avid and Adobe, are attempting to capitalize on the needs of the professional market. Avid has announced plans to focus more on their professional customers while divesting from its consumer businesses (Read about it here).  Many professionals in the production industry have already made the change; Bunim/Murray, the production company responsible for bringing you The Real World, The Bad Girls Club, and the ever delightful Keeping Up With The Kardashians, has announced their decision to drop Final Cut and in favor of Avid: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/04/reality-tv-producer-bunimmurray-drops-final-cut-for-avid/

Along with this move towards the professional market, Avid made sure not to leave the "prosumer" front empty-handed with the launch of Avid Studio, a mobile editing app for the iPad ($7.99/month) earlier this year.

Although editing on an iPad has its obvious limitations, the app is meant as a companion software for the desktop app: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/02/avid-takes-on-apples-imovie-with-avid-studio-for-ipad/

Meanwhile on the other side of the fence, Apple made a minor update to their Mac Pro, which was first quietly promoted on their site and then later removed (read about it here). Perhaps they were a bit overzealous to promote such a tiny update due to their current perceived missteps with FCP X? Who knows. Either way, one thing is clear: the divide between the consumer and the professional markets are growing considerably and its interesting to see which steps in either direction these companies will make.