Back in April, more than 100 individuals involved in worldwide television and movie production signed and published an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook requesting the Cupertino company put more effort into developing and promoting Final Cut Pro, particularly within the film and television markets. Yesterday, Apple responded to that letter with one of their own, wherein it addresses some of the concerns laid out in the original letter and promises new efforts to keep Final Cut Pro alive and well within the entertainment industry.
The letter opens by saying ‘To the authors of the recent open letter regarding Final Cut Pro in the TV and film industry: the creative community has always been so important to us at Apple, and we’re grateful for your feedback.’ After a brief acknowledgement that Final Cut Pro has been used in everything from ‘Hollywood movies’ to ‘high-profile commercials,’ Apple’s response addresses the main concern brought up in the original open letter: feature updates and auxiliary support for making Final Cut Pro more accessible to those within the entertainment industry through professional support and services.
Specifically, Apple says that ‘While we believe we have plans in place to help address your important feature requests, we also recognize the need to build on those efforts and work alongside you to help support your film and TV projects and keep you posted on important updates.’ To achieve this, Apple says it will be ‘Launching new training products and Apple-authorized certifications for pro video starting this month with our partner Future Media Concepts,’ ‘Establishing a panel of industry experts for regular consultations, starting this summer’ and ‘Expanding the content and frequency of Final Cut Pro workshops for major film and television productions.’
It concludes its letter by saying ‘We would love to work with you to help support your film and TV projects, and we will continue to explore opportunities that allow us to better connect and foster important dialogue with our devoted community of users going forward.’
Apple’s response might be vague, but it does appear the company has heard the voices of the signees of the original letter and are determined to better promote its video editing software through feature updates, professional support and various workshops.
With Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) just around the corner (starts June 6, 2022), it’ll be interesting to see if we hear anything about Final Cut Pro during the pre-recorded presentation and subsequent events. Many users have been asking Apple to bring Final Cut Pro to its iPad devices and while there’s no mention of that in either the open letter, nor Apple’s response, there’s still hope that an announcement will be made sooner than later.