By AppleInsider Staff
Published: 09:10 AM EST (06:10 AM PST)
Adobe has continued its attempt to capitalize on discontent over Apple's new Final Cut Pro X, courting video professionals to convert to its competing Premiere Pro with 50 percent savings.
Through Sept. 30, anyone who has purchased any version of Final Cut Pro, or even Avid Media Composer, will be able to switch to Adobe's Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium or Premiere Pro CS5.5 with a 50 percent discount. Both CS5.5 Production Premium and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 launched in April of 2011.
"We’re hearing from video professionals that they want pro level tools that address cutting edge work but also allow them to use legacy footage and workflows," said Jim Guerard, general manager and vice president of professional video and audio, Adobe. "At Adobe we’ve been in the trenches with video pros for years and with Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 and CS5.5 Production Premium we’ve delivered professional-grade tools that are already being battle-tested by some of the most innovative filmmakers, broadcasters and video pros."
Adobe highlighted the features of Premiere Pro CS5.5, including the fact that it is compatible with the latest Mac hardware, namely Thunderbolt ports, 64-bit processors and multicore CPUs. Premiere Pro CS 5.5 is native 64-bit, and provides graphics processor unit acceleration for real-time effects, color correction/grading, and accelerated rendering.
The aggressive discount from Adobe is the latest attempt from the software company to capitalize on the unhappiness some video professionals have expressed over Apple's new Final Cut Pro X.
Earlier this week, Adobe launched a
public relations offensive attempting to drum up support for Premiere Pro. PR representatives for Adobe have called attention to documents in assisting users in switching from Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro.
Adobe now has a
dedicated website on switching to Premiere Pro. The main graphic on the page even reads "You're a pro. Make sure your toolset is too," perhaps a reference to some outspoken critics of Final Cut Pro X who have suggested the latest update is not a "pro" application.
Last May,
AppleInsider was
first to report that Apple was scaling its Final Cut Pro software to better fit the "prosumer" market, rather than high-end professionals. Final Cut Pro X was eventually released
earlier this month.
The new software was quickly met
with condemnation from some video professionals who believe Apple's new product is vastly inferior to its predecessor. They have also expressed discontent that Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut Pro are
no longer available for purchase, having been declared "end of life" with the launch of Final Cut Pro X on June 21.
Apple has even been
providing refunds to dissatisfied customers who purchased Final Cut Pro X from the Mac App Store. Product managers have also
spoken publicly on the matter, revealing that some important features like multicam editing will be added in a future release.
This week, Apple also posted a series of
questions and answers on its website, in which it explained that drastic changes to Final Cu Pro X made it impossible to "translate" old projects from Final Cut Pro 7 without changing or losing data. As a result, the ability to import projects from older versions of Final Cut will not be coming to the latest release.
