“Apple has acquired Silicon Color, the company responsible for producing FinalTouch color correction software. Apple will continue to honor maintenance agreements held by current Silicon Color customers until they expire, according to the company, and gains rights to all Silicon Color technology as well as its intellectual property,” MacNN reports.
Full article here.
An announcement on the SiliconColor.com Web page states:
We are pleased to announce that all Silicon Color technology and intellectual property, including FinalTouch color correction software, was recently sold to Apple. Maintenance agreements held by current Silicon Color customers will be honored by Apple until they expire.
MacDailyNews Note: We are experiencing a confluence of events that make it difficult to update the site as often as we wish. We hope to resume normal operation sometime Tuesday (10/17) afternoon (Eastern) and will make every effort to update whenever possible in the meantime. Thank you for your patience and for visiting MacDailyNews.
Never heard of them. No quite as big as that YouTube Google thing I suspect.
It’s about damn time. Just kidding. It sounds good for video processing?
This outfit is not your typical mainstream organization and their products won’t find their way into the iLife suite anytime soon.
Their FinalTouch 2K systems start at just $24,000.
However, if you’re still working in DV-CAM or Digi-Beta they have a program capable of real-time color correction for just a $1,000.
What cost you $24,000 last year is now a part of your $499 FinalCutPro upgrade package.
Sounds like a strategic acquisition related to the pro media apps, i.e. Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Aperture.
Or strategic acquistion to stop a lawsuit for “borrowing” software technology….
YES! Apple buys Adobe!!! YES!!! Oh… Silicon Color, not Adobe? Ok, nevermind then. Carry on.
Yes, this should help Apple’s entry into the field of…..whatever Silicon Color does.
Welcome, Silicon Color, and all your apps….that I’ve not heard of.
MDN did you get hammered by the snow up there?
why does everyone think apple should buy adobe?
that’s ridiculous. if they tried, microsoft would outbid them, and THEN Apple would be really screwed.
Jim — it was just a joke, because you’re right, everyone always does say that. I don’t know if MS would be allowed to buy Adobe, at least Apple would maybe have a chance. Who knows… I, for one, think it would be great.
Jobs has always sought exquisite display quality — whether at Apple, NeXT, or Pixar. So yes, this is a strategic investment. Apple acquires superior technology and infuses it into their products at various levels. It is good to see that NIH — not invented here — can be overcome at Apple.
Um, guys, I think this goes beyond Adobe. Look at their product set. Their products are high end. This is definitely a pro play. That said, perhaps there are some technologies that may impact the underlying core elements of QuickTime, for example. If Apple is to stay ahead of Microsoft in the area of human interface design and graphics (to make their Aero-knock-off oh so very last year), Apple must continue to move forward.
When you look at it, Apple rarely makes acquisitions for a company of its size. And when they do, the acquisitions tend to be smaller, but strategic buys to add technologies that enable a direction they need. That contrasts with acquisitions other large companies make to hide the fact that their core business isn’t growing.
I have a hunch that few if not any of us really comprehend what the impact of this acquisition will be. But it should to see what happens when we fast forward a year or two.
This is huge for Apple and for Final Cut Pro. Color correction is the one big weakness left when comparing FCP Studio with the industry leader Avid Media Composer platform (previously Apple’s xSan Storage Area Network leveraged parity vs. Avid in another major comparison.) Of course excellent 3rd party plugins have been available for FCP, the fact that they have not been standard – not to mention their cost (note the $1k – 24k price quoted above) – has been a significant detriment to Hollywood adopting FCP on any grand scale.
I have been vocally predicting for years now to everyone in H’wood with whom I’ve discussed the Apple vs. Avid debate (FWIW, I am a certified editor for both FCP and Avid, and also work as a repair technician and integrator) – anyway, I’ve been predicting that FCP would eclipse Avid in the same way that dedicated hardware 3D (SGI) was replaced by fast PCs, and the way that the old dedicated printing systems (Linotronic Merganthalers, etc.) gave way to relatively inexpensive Macs and laser printers. Avid is well aware of this trend and they are hedging with their (non-hardware-dependent)) Avid Xpress Pro product. Meanwhile, their sales team are pushing as many Symphony NItris and Media Composer systems as they can while the margins are good. But the writing is on the wall.
And now, with the Silicon Color acquisition, it is written in neon. This is huge news for FCP adoption, for Apple, and Hollywood!
I thought SiliconColor was one of those boardwalk kiosks that sold multicolor layers of sand in a bottle. Those were so cool.
I’m experiencing a confluence of events that make it difficult to post as often as I wish. I hope to resume normal operation sometime Tuesday (10/17) afternoon (Eastern) and will make every effort to post whenever possible in the meantime. Thank you for your patience,
b
This explains why Silicon Color refuses to fix my lava lamp. I’ll write a letter to Apple about it. Steve Jobs might go to bat for me. I hear he’s groovy.
b:
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” />
Some of the features of FTSD are likely to end up in iMovie, possibly as soon as January. Oh, not a lot of them … but some. Some are already there – kinda … sorta. One question might be:
“Will we get better/more features or similar features with better code – or both?”
There’s usually feature over-lap in products with similar uses, it’s unusual for three different coding teams to create the same features the same way – with either the same style or the same code. Apple has just added some excellent people to the crews they use to produce movie-making software – there may be wunnerful things on the horizon.