Apple Wields Its Hammer, Smashes SuperMeet

Studio Daily blogs by Scott Simmons

If news broke that Apple was finally going to attend the annual Final Cut Pro User Group SuperMeet to announce a brand new version of Final Cut Pro, you might think it would be cause for celebration. Apple has periodically attended past SuperMeets, held for the last ten years during NAB. But except for an appearance last year, the company hasn’t had much of a presence or sponsorship for some time. As a result, you might assume every SuperMeet attendee would welcome the news that the very secretive Apple, which rarely shows previews or announces products before they ship, will show up. Well, you’d be wrong.

For weeks now the official SuperMeet website has been headlined by logos from companies like Avid and AJA, some of its main sponsors. Those logos have now mysteriously disappeared. For weeks on the site the presentation lineup listed people like Philip Bloom doing his Canon DSLR thing, Alexis Van Hurkman talking color grading, Autodesk talking Smoke for Mac and Avid bringing Kevin Smith to the stage. Those have been replaced by, and I quote, a “surprise sneak peek at something very special.” For weeks there had been no second half of the agenda listed, only that an announcement would be coming soon.

The ball dropped on Tuesday when a rumor began going around that Apple had demanded organizers of the SuperMeet turn the event over to them. While we don’t know for sure, I think it’s safe to say Apple wants to use the SuperMeet to announce/demo/pimp the new Final Cut Pro that was shown to a small handful of folks in late February. That in itself should be fantastic news to all FCP 7 users suffering under the weight of the now outdated software. It seemed ideal that Apple might take the entire second half of the SuperMeet show, leaving the planned program in place. read more...