Avid's 'New Thinking' isnt 'new' to anyone but themselves.
The news that Avid were discontinuing their Xpress Pro line came as a surprise to noone. Consolidation of their absurdly varied and disjointed product line was a no-brainer business decision that should have been made a long time ago.
Similarly the big price drop for the remaining Media Composer (software only) system was also written on the wall for some time. Economic physics dictates that offering a product on the market that does Nothing more than any of the other players on the field, but charging twice as much for it, is never going to do well. Consumers are often stupid but theyre not THAT stupid. The new breed of media-makers have been voting with their feet away from Avid for the better part of a decade, the price point obviously wasnt helping.
That Avid has massively cut the academic price for Media Composer is also a move that can hardly be seen as bold. Software developers have been using the drug-dealers strategy of get em hooked while their young and theyll buy from you for life for (literally) decades. Apple, Adobe, Sony have all been working the education market hard fro many years and have reaped the benefits (to Avids detriment) as a result.
That Avid have launched a new online support portal for Avid users that utilizes a peer/user ranking system to rate the usefulness of posts and tutorials is positively laughable for its lack of vision. Where have you been Avid? The rest of the digital production world has been fully engaged developer-sponsored, on-line peer-exchange for years. Welcome to the 21st century, we hope you enjoy your stay.
This set of changes have been termed by the geniuses at Avid HQ as
New Thinking
With a startling lack of newness the only people who will find anything New in this 'New Thinking' are existing Avid users living in the Avid silo who havnt yet peered over the bubble's edge to see the brave new world outside of the cloistered Avid mentality.
Too little, too late Avid.
The death of Avid started a long time ago.
Posted at 12:00AM Mar 24, 2008
by Mike Jones in industry comment |
