While, selfishly, I’m kind of okay with this because it’s good for my business:

http://alex4d.com/notes/item/apple-discontinues-applecare-provideo-support

It’s still a bit of a bummer… because what it really means for your average person is that they’ll now think the only option for real, immediate, pro A/V support with FCPX is to go to the Apple Store and talk to an Apple Genius… and I think we all know how that is going to go for them.

*** Shameless self promotion… if you need help with FCPX and the related ecosystem, FCPWORKS is a way better option for you than the Apple store ***

Sales pitch over.

Anyway, what this news also means is that it’s just another barrel in the gun for Apple critics who want to rail about how Apple has abandoned the Pro Video market… and I was really hoping I was done with that debate.

Here’s my point of view on it, though, for what it’s worth.  I don’t think this is a sign that Apple isn’t committed to the pro market.  I think it’s more a sign that they have bigger problems to solve, and that maybe the support infrastructure itself has changed a bit from when Apple’s Pro Video Support was necessary.

The truth is that most people find a lot of the answers they need through google, blogs, and videos nowadays.  I know I do.

And for more specialized, higher end cases, they probably weren’t going to be Apple Support clients anyway… those guys are all going to third party specialized consultants who are doing the real work day in and day out.

I think what this move symbolizes more is probably the fact that Apple woke up one day and realized that a $799/year support service wasn’t really in line at all with what their average customer needed from them… so, I think that’s why they killed it.

I mean, honestly… would you/were you paying $799 a year (more than twice as much as it costs for a license of FCPX) for Apple’s Pro Video Support?

I know I wasn’t.

To be honest, until I read Alex’s post… I didn’t even know this was still around… which probably says more about why they got rid of it than anything.

However, if you do find that you need this kind of support… well, we do that here at FCPWORKS, and we’ll have you covered.  Feel free to reach out to workflow@fcpworks.com with any questions.

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