April 25, 1999: Final Cut Debuts

by Chris Seibold Apr 25, 2011

Video effects software had been around for some time, as had video editing and video composing software. What was lacking was an integrated package for these three different functions. That lack disappeared when Apple introduced Final Cut Pro.

Immediately outpacing the competition, mainly Avid and Adobe Premiere, Apple took the low cost video editing software market by storm. Not surprising, since while the $999 cost may seem high to the home user, it was a fraction of what the traditional tools would set a production house back.

Surprisingly, Final Cut Pro wasn't an in-house development for Apple. They picked the program up from Macromedia for $7 million dollars and polished the program to such an extent that it was later imitated by Adobe in a Windows only version of AdobePremiere. The program that rapidly became a major player in the video industry was debuted at the National Association of Broadcasters conference this month in 1999.

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Comments

  • Hi Chris,

    I don’t think you meant to use the word “composting.”

    I gathered some other history on the development of Final Cut Pro as it traveled from Macromedia to Apple, and how Microsoft was involved, at:

    How Microsoft Pushed QuickTime’s Final Cut

    - Daniel Eran

    Daniel Dilger had this to say on Apr 25, 2007 Posts: 4

  • I disagree Daniel, one of the often unsung features of Final Cut Pro - at least in its early incarnations - was its ability to make compost from garden and household waste.

    hitchhiker had this to say on Apr 27, 2007 Posts: 48

  • it truly was an amazing product….

    Chris Seibold had this to say on Apr 27, 2007 Posts: 354
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