MacFevre — Ramblings of a ‘Fevre’ induced Mac man
Is Apple phasing out the Academic versions of its software?
By Wayne LeFevre
Final Cut Studio 3 was released with little to no fan-fare
this week. That in itself is a bit of a mystery. Many are touting it as nothing
but a point release, and that there shouldn’t be such a hefty charge for such.
Speaking of the price, the price plans that Apple has come up with are too a
bit of a mystery. The price for the full version is $999. That is a full $300
less then the previous version. A boon to those purchasing for the first time.
Up-graders too will find justice in the world with an upgrade price of $299.
$200 less then the previous upgrade price. At a huge disadvantage, though, will
be the academic crowd.
For reasons unknown, Apple decides to price it $899. Only
$100 less than the full price, and $200 more than the price of the previous
academic offering, one has to wonder why anyone would bother accepting such
restrictions. Academic versions of software by Apple have always been a bit of
a blessing/curse relationship with those that purchase it. Usually, it allows
those attending schools, those instructing at schools, and even the schools
themselves to purchase the software at a great discount. With that discount,
however, is knowing that you cannot upgrade that version, ever. Not to the full
version, and not to the next version.
Most of the time, the Academic version of the software is
very deeply discounted, sometimes more then 50% of the original full price.
Usually, when the next version comes along and an institution would like to
upgrade, they simply purchase the next Academic version. Essentially, with a
package like FCS, giving them 2 versions for around $1,400 versus $1,800 for
those two versions upgrading through the normal route. ($1300 original plus an
additional $500 to upgrade to next version.)
With the new pricing scheme, however, why would anyone go
with the Academic version? I can only assume that Apple is trying to phase out
the Academic version. With no ability to upgrade, and assuming the next version
is the same cost as this version, going the same route would cost an
institution approx. $1800 for two versions of Final Cut Studio. By purchasing
the full version at $999, and the next version at $299, for a total cost of
$1,300. That’s a savings of around $500. Not a small price for schools already
being hit by budget cuts, with students and faculty at a similar economic
disadvantage. This is disappointing to me personally, as I, (in all actuality
my wife,) is an educator and we have saved many dollars through the Academic
store.
So who do you suppose is Apple targeting the new software
for? Clearly they want the indie producer. I believe they are also targeting
those users who now work with Final Cut Express that want the extra features of
the Studio package, but can’t quite get themselves over that thousand-dollar
mental price barrier. But I am truly flummoxed by the Academic price. Perhaps
they think that the intellectuals have gotten too much of a discount in the
past. Maybe they figure that students are more than likely to simply grab the
latest copy from bit-torrent or other means of "sharing." But at a
time in history when we really should be supporting any way we can our future
generation, you would think that one of the few companies that is actually
making money hand-over-fist these days would be supporting the educational
system any way they can. (Especially when schools, normally the only places one
sees Apple computers in the wild, start to cut budgets and think that they can
save money by switching to inexpensive PCs.)
