COMMENTARY/RANT

I nearly choked on my coffee when I first ran across an article on a web site touting that Emagic was discontinuing Windows products. At first I thought it was a hoax or some kind of a joke, but NO - it is true - Apple bought Emagic and is discontinuing Windows based products like Logic. Below you will find excerpts from the actual text as presented on the Emagic web site. But first a bit of commentary (or rant if you prefer) ...

The timing is odd for me as a week ago I just installed Logic 5 Platinum on the PC. I haven't had adequate time to really get into the merits of Logic 5 Platinum on the PC. After getting past the initial installation hiccups, I have begun to fall in love with this software. So as you can imagine I was kind of put off at the prospect of getting too close to this exciting new software only to find that in September only the Mac version would be available and supported in future product development. That's not to say that support will disappear entirely. But what is the point of getting in bed with a product that will no longer be improved on the PC platform as it will be on the Mac? And frankly, I find it harder and harder to justify booting up the Mac when the PC has been serving me superbly.

This situation really made me think about arrogant Apple and once again added to the bad taste I have had for them. Now I go back quite a few years with the Mac and it once was the king of not only my music & video studio, but also the heart of day to day tasks like graphics, business, journals, web etc. In fact, the other day I was reminded how difficult it is to get my Mac WordPerfect documents translated over to the PC. I have years and years of data on my mac drives that I generally do not have access to. It is a bitch to gather all my graphics, video, audio etc. and move them to my PC.

Without getting into too much detail, I got a Windows PC about 3 years ago and reluctantly started to do more and more music creation on the PC. The main reason was that there simply was so much more cool software available for Windows than the Mac. Acid, Fruity Loops and the list goes on and on. There were only a few programs available exclusively for the Mac that I missed. Cycling 74 Pluggo was one, and Native Instruments Absynth was the other. Since that time Absynth is now available for the PC in addition to the Mac. I'm eagerly waiting for Pluggo PC! I miss that one!

Originally I intended to use my Mac side by side with the PC, but soon found that my expensive audio card (MOTU 24i) , my external monitors (Event 20/20 BAS) and all my hardware synths would be put to better use if I connected them to the PC. So the Mac became an orphan of sorts with the cut down audio system (Korg 1212 I/O) and I migrated most of my gear to the PC. Since then, I have upgraded to a custom built Pentium 4 1.7 ghz PC ($1,500. loaded) and let's just say the old G3 450 MHz Mac doesn't find much use these days. Yes, I could have bought a new Mac instead but that would have set me back at least double what the PC cost. Hard to argue with economics.

Apple could have been a stronger market leader early on in the computing game if it had not had such a history of being so arrogant. It has refused to join in on the mass market computer revolution and insisted it could be a hardware, OS and software company offering an alternative that was alledgedly superior. It settled for a small niche when it could have joined in on the whole pie. I believe it is this arrogance that has kept Apple with a meager market share of overall installed computers. Yes it had a darn good operating system, and at one time made Windows look like DOS, but Windows caught up (I know - it stole many Mac OS concepts). To be honest I have grown to prefer the Windows way of doing things, so the allegedly better User Interface of the Mac is not an issue for me at this point in time. And as music goes, I never liked OMS which was necessary on the Mac to make things talk to each other. It sucked! OMS was far more of a pain than the Windows OS ever was for me.

In the overall scheme of things, I believe for music and video creation Windows is as good and as capable, if not more so ( because of the wealth of options and diversity in software) than the Mac.

Yes, I know there are tons of happy Mac Users out there, particularly when it comes to Multimedia, Music and Video creation. I don't mean to slam anyones platform of choice, and it is not my intention to sway anybody over to Windows, but for me personally the move to Windows has been very productive and worth all the hassle (even having to spend time and effort getting my old Mac data).

If you can get the job done and are happy with the options that the Mac provides you that is fine. But I have personally found my migration to Windows to be much more liberating and less limiting. It has opened up a world of choice. I no longer have to wait for the Mac to catch up with software that has begun on Windows. I have more programs to choose from when buying software. There is greater competition for providing new features and ease of use etc.

Let's look at MP3's for example. Until the iMac, Windows users were already enjoying a new way of interacting with music with mp3 players and rippers readily available. The Mac played catch up. Take shareware as another example. The new nature of the computing world has allowed small independent software creators to create products that rival and even surpass the major established companies. The majority of this cutting edge shareware originates and/or is only available for the PC. I remember how frustrating it was on the Mac having to pass on all that great shareware and freeware that was not available for the Mac. When it comes to software avalaible the Mac is limited compared to Windows. Just visit your local Fry's Electronics or other computer superstore and compare how many aisles of PC software there is compared to the Mac (if they even stock Mac Titles). That means greater competition which results in better prices for users. Mac software often costs more when and if available. And the cost of Apple hardware? It's expensive. Apple likes it that way. They have no competition. They have a fixed market and can name their price. That is cold hard reality.

But how long can Apple charge more for their computers when the prices of similarly equipped PC's are much less? Once the marketing hype settles, it's the features and price to performance ratio that is important to buyers of computers.

I feel badly though as there will surely be Mac to PC converts down the road who will realize that their creative efforts (data) are locked away on their old Mac hard drive, and will have to find & save that data and migrate it to the PC someday. I've been through it and continue to have to deal with that stuff. I was not so organized and to this day can't find important files. Even worse is that my earliest music creation efforts are locked away on my old Atari ST (maybe that is why I am bitter!). To this day I still have some of my songs and synth patch data on the Atari HD. Yes, the Atari was king back then for music - but where is it now? Where will Apple be in the future? Is it worth betting your intellectual property on?

Well, enough of that Mac vs. PC stuff. It's funny because not too long ago I was doing this rant in favor of the Mac!

It bothers me that Emagic is now a pawn in the game that Apple is playing to hold on to it's one mildly successful niche: content creation. But will it really help Apple? Will users switch from the PC to the Mac just to run Logic? Maybe... I guess Apple will likely keep many of the 100,000 or so Logic Mac users from switching to the PC, and that is surely Apple's primary goal. But is that enough to ensure Apple's future down the road? Now, maybe if they can gobble up and acquire Steinberg and Cakewalk they may have a workable plan... for a while at least.

What about Emagic as a company? What company would be willing to give up on the lucrative "UPGRADE MARKET"? What company would throw away a user base of 100,000 possible PC software upgrades? Will they make that loss of revenue up on increased Mac sales??? I don't think so... Their profits as a company will be cut in half and the future prospect of getting more PC market share is gone. There must be some kind of secret weapon hiding in there because from a business standpoint this just doesn't make sense.

Another thought - now that Emagic is owned by Apple - what kind of support will competing Mac manufacturers get in improving their products? Will Emagic products get an edge with new features and support? Hmmm.... Will Cubase and Performer get the same treatment as Logic Mac??? Hmmmm....

I think Steinberg summed it up very appropriately on their web page offering a crossgrade to Logic PC users. "Steinberg sees itself as a software manufacturer that lets the customer decide which platform he or she would like to work on. Steinberg will continue development for both the PC and the Mac platforms."

The problem is that Apple is NOT a software company. It is merely using the software as a weapon to increase market share of their OS and Hardware sales. Apple is primarily an Operating System and Hardware company, and it wants to force you to buy their software (in this case Logic - also Final Cut Pro), and use it only on the platform they sell computers on. What would happen to Apple if Microsoft took this approach and dumped MAC OS support?

All is far in love and war, I guess.

So... in summary I believe this is not a good move overall for music making on computers. Emagic as a company will lose the biggest area for growth and 50% of it's current revenue, just to keep Apple floating a little longer. And it is alienating PC users of their software. Not exactly something a company does to generate good will among future customers. Yes, it will possibly help Apple in the short term. But I still believe that someday if Apple does not change it's ways and ease up on the arrogance, it will lose more and more of the small niche it now occupies.

Either you become a particpant with the whole world, or you isolate yourself on an island and only do things your way. Apple seems to want the island. The island approach may work for a while, but eventually people on the island want the freedom of choice that the rest of the world enjoys. They want what other people are bragging about having. They want blue jeans and rock music... I think you get the picture!

END OF COMMENTARY/RANT