Working in the creative industry sector, we get used to seeing a lot of Apple systems and the problems they bring but recent discussions with colleagues in the sector leads us to interesting conclusions. Are we going to see an interesting reversal in the world of desktop IT?
The general feeling amongst many I talk too is that Apple are no longer really that interested in supporting the creative professional; look at the situation with FCP X and the ructions that caused. Yes, Apple have added enhancements to the FCP X to better support the professional community but it did appear grudgingly and an afterthought. Apple would obviously prefer to sell lots of copies to Joe Public as opposed to a few copies to the creative sector; it’s sensible economics.
Companies who were talking about standardising on FCP for their video editing requirements are no longer progressing that strategy. Adobe has certainly started to pick up the slack and there are the more traditional niche media developers who were under pressure from Apple who are now feeling a lot more confident about their future. All of this is beginning to drive a shift to Windows and to a certain extent Linux as well for the media professional. Linux certainly has a big foothold in the specialised rendering environment, where it makes especial sense for large deployments.
But on the corporate side of things, Apple has never really been healthier; the BYOD meme driven by iOS devices has put Apple firmly on the corporate IT agenda.
So are we going to see something really rather peculiar, where the operating system of choice for many corporate IT users is Apple but for the media sector, it’s anything but Apple?
Funny old world we live in!
p.s this was typed on a MBA which sits on a home-network with Linux, Windows, Android and iOS devices all attached…so it’s not a Fanboi article either way.
