Op-Ed: The Mac's second coming just begun


Apple has posted a "Hot News" report on Phil Schiller's NAB keynote and the related announcements, which are indirectly referred to as causing a "tectonic shift in the underpinnings of the digital video industry." Happily this was a calculated move on Apple's part designed to "send ripples of excitement through NAB 2003 and beyond."

Sarcasm aside Apple technologies are actually causing a tectonic shift in the industry and perhaps a few people watching Schiller's dog-n-pony show actually did few a ripples of excitement.

Statements from Schiller like "There's a whole ecosystem occurring around Final Cut Pro?s workflow,? in truth, do stand up to skeptical review. Moreover, we've seen tectonic shifts like this in the past and since the Mac the workflow has never been the same.

This new paradigm (workflow) is delivering reports from journalists in the field with US troops in Iraq and it's also a significant driving force behind some of the best new feature films.

Apple is bringing about a revolution with digital video in very much the same way it did all those years ago in desktop publishing. This time, however, it probably won't take a decade for the revolution to makeover the face of the planet.

A magical chip?

Call me a hidebound, but I think the real tremblers will begin with the release of 64-bit hardware later this year. Why? Because this evolutionary advance in processing power coupled with Apple's already vastly underrated (and underutilized) operating system, software and DV market equity will double or perhaps triple the mothership's lead in key areas (compositing, 3D, editing, 2D, layout, etc) in the space of six to nine months.

The second coming of the Macintosh has only just begun and I for one am excited. Think ripples...

What's your take?