Apple has filed a trademark update that paves the way for a future Final Cut Pro subscription.
Apple’s pro video editing software is currently a $300 one-off purchase, with all updates free of charge. But the company has just taken a step that would open up four potential new scenarios…
Patently Apple spotted the update to the company’s trademark, adding the category “software rental.”
Apple’s ‘Final Cut Pro’ was granted ‘Registered Trademark’ (RTM) status back in May 2016. Apple’s RTM was filed only under International Class 009 covering the following:
“Computer software for creating, editing, processing, organizing, importing, exporting, and encoding video, movies, motion picture films, and multimedia content; computer software for creating, editing, processing, organizing, importing, exporting, and encoding audio, music, and sound content; computer software for creating and editing digital animation, graphics, and special effects; computer software for color correction of video and multimedia content; computer software for creating, processing, exporting, and encoding digital media.”
- The three Final Cut Studio apps, Color, Soundtrack Pro, and DVD Studio Pro were dropped, while Motion 5 and Compressor 4 were released onto the Mac App Store. In its initial release, Final Cut Pro X was met with mixed reviews as many video editors eschewed its dramatic departure from the traditional editing interface and the dropping of many.
- This simple-yet-important change allows users of Final Cut Pro X 10.3 (Mac users) and users of Adobe Premiere Pro (Windows users) to centrally store their video materials in the same shared folder on the NAS, greatly improves productivity for highly-collaborative projects in multi-workstation environments.
Prerelease Final Cut Pro 10.4.9 with prerelease plugins from RED Apple Workflow Installer v16, and Final Cut Pro 10.4.8 with plugins from RED Apple Workflow Installer v15 tested on macOS Catalina, using an 11-second project with REDCODE® RAW 4:1 video, at 8192x4320 resolution and 23.98 frames per second, transcoded to Apple ProRes 422.
The term Software rental was not part of their registered trademark back in 2016.
On Monday Apple filed an update to their trademark ‘Final Cut Pro’ in Europe adding Nice Classification #42 that hints that Apple could decide to go the way of Microsoft’s subscription model for Final Cut Pro by adding in that class verbiage covering “rental of software.”
Final Cut Pro Mac App Store Price
As the site notes, this is a very specific step taken by Apple to extend the coverage of the trademark, so it doesn’t appear to be simply a standard move the company is taking to cover all the bases.
Final Cut Pro Mac App Store Chrome
There are four potential scenarios for a Final Cut Pro subscription.
Final Cut Pro Mac App Store App
First, Apple could retain the one-off purchase option, but charge a subscription fee for major updates.
Second, the company could offer new users the choice of a one-off purchase or monthly subscription to use the app.
Third, Apple could remove the option of a one-off purchase and turn Final Cut Pro into a subscription service. This possibility would dismay many who dislike the software as a service (SAAS) trend, preferring occasional app purchase costs to recurring monthly fees.
Finally, another option is that Apple might be keeping things as is, and only charging a subscription for those who want to use some kind of cloud-based version of Final Cut. That might mean access to an iPad version of the app as well as the Mac app, in addition to cloud storage.
Although the move does appear to be a very deliberate one, that doesn’t mean Apple has any current plans to change its business model for Final Cut Pro – but does suggest it is at least seriously considering the possibility. If you’ve been on the fence about buying it, now might be a good time to make a decision.
Final Cut Pro Mac App Store Online
Final Cut Pro X Mac App Store
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