Essentially it’s because it doesn’t have to. Aside from the company’s legendary need to control every aspect of the way it appears in public, something that’s difficult at an event staged by someone else, the products, much to the chagrin of the competition, seem to a large extent to sell themselves. Brand recognition for Apple is off the charts since the iPod and iPhone, and although pro audio, like pro video, is an important area for the company to compete, it’s a still a niche market in the wider scheme of things. You don’t build up cash reserves in the tens of billions of dollars by selling high-end music software or even high-end Macs to run it on. That honour goes to the consumer devices.
[Editor: There have been a few articles in the last weeks speculating on the when and where of Apple’s declaration of support for the professionals in their marketplace. The meme is catching on that with Apple worth billions now, they not only don’t need the pros, or to be selling the pro equipment that they rely upon…too much of a niche. One who believes that clearly doesn’t understand the philosophy of niche markets, the failure of Sony or the philosophy of Steve…who, by the way, was recently noted for return emailing an editor who wondered if FCP was going to be improved. Steve gave a short comment that he will have to live up to…one expects that there will be a new version of FCS that will leapfrog the market once again.]
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Audio – Apple’s clever decision to tie Logic into the Mac…
10:58AM, Thursday 6th May 2010
Most people’s experience of computers starts with a PC, cheap and ubiquitous as they are. For anyone who studies music technology, on the other hand, it’s much more likely that your lab will be stocked not with beige boxes but with iMacs or Mac towers. …
When it comes to the software, on the other hand, some gentle prodding is needed, especially since all the major music programs run almost equally well on Mac OS X. Here, things start to get a little less clear cut – …
On acquiring the company in 2002, Apple immediately discontinued the Windows version of Logic, signalling its intentions to establish the Mac as the dominant platform in the audio world. …
For those who didn’t need all the bells and whistles, Apple created Logic Express, which was and is still a remarkably capable piece of software. …
Ultimately, it’s hardware sales that keep Apple growing at such a rate. …
This, of course, is understandable and good business: nobody could ever claim Apple didn’t know a thing or two about selling. …