Don't Worry About Final Cut

· Joanthan Poritsky

Ever since Monday’s announcement that Steve Jobs will be taking an indefinite medical leave from Apple, it feels like every outlet on the planet has tried to find a way to spin a story out of the titan’s personal affairs. Speculation about his prognosis, figuring how this will effect the stock price and, of course, what this bodes for Apple’s product line.

In a word, it’s all horseshit.

Today, I feel Variety has crossed a line (or [via Instapaper](http:/ /www.instapaper.com/text?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.variety.com%2Farticle%2FVR11180304 82%3Fcategoryid%3D1009%26cs%3D1%26nid%3D2562%26utm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_m edium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bvariety%252Fheadlines%2B%2528Variety %2B-%2BLatest%2BNews%2529)) into territory I feel like I can address, so I’d like to call them on the carpet. In a throwaway piece which appears online this morning, no doubt in a sidebar in print, they haphazardly speculate that Jobs’ condition could have implications for Final Cut Pro. Here’s the opening sentence of the piece:

Monday’s news that Apple topper Steve Jobs is taking medical leave is sure to prompt speculation about Apple’s commitment to Final Cut.

The whole thing tops out at 97 words. It’s not a scoop; it’s stirring the pot and filling up the page. Moreover, the whole idea seems to be the brainchild of someone who doesn’t know anything about Apple, post production or the movie industry. That’s three pretty big fails for Variety. Here are some clues as to why this is a load:

  1. Final Cut is pervasive, but it’s far from the only game in town. A trade paper like Variety doesn’t seem to have any business worrying about this. 2. Jobs has never been seen, at least not since Apple’s acquisition of Final Cut in 1998, as a guru of all things FCP. In fact, the application runs counter to almost all of the software advances Apple has made over the last decade, retaining roughly the same design since 1999. 3. If there is to be a new Final Cut coming out this year (and I do believe there is) then the major changes are already complete. It’s doubtful that Jobs was fine-tuning the program with the development team this late in the game. If there is hay to make from Jobs’ departure, it’s that the 2013 release of FCP could be called into question, but certainly not anything coming out this year. I feel very strongly that Final Cut Pro is the best editing application for me, and I hope that in its future Apple will bring us into a new age of streamlined editing. In his tenure as CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs has changed the way the world looks at technology. From the Mac to the iPod to the iPad to the iPhone, he has helped invent more products that affect the lives of millions than most can ever hope. Nonetheless, Final Cut is safe without him, and it’s downright inappropriate to suggest otherwise. Shame on you, Variety.