With the release of Motion 4, packaged with Final Cut Studio 3, it seems like Apple has officially dropped it’s high end software program, Shake. First off, I wish to say that Shake is an excellent program, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. High end films such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Dark Knight have all used Shake in their post production workflow. The real perplexing issue here is why has Apple abandoned such a well used and respected program. It seems like Apple is in the business of telling people what they want rather than listening to what they want. Meaning that rather than take an already solid and well-groomed program and expand with it, they bury it and try to force people to use their new Motion 4 instead. Now Motion has had some upgrades, the most notable and obvious being the ability to work in 3D textures and shadowing, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why that means dumping another popular and successful program. It’s almost as if they think that we’ll just start using Motion instead, when really Motion hasn’t had, nor has it earned, the respect of serious professionals. With other programs available, such as the very popular After Effects for example, my guess is that people will simply use programs like that more rather than start learning a new program that’s clearly at the beginning stages of it’s professional wannabe surge. And with these other programs having solidified their reputation on the market, Motion has a long way to go to get any real attention from the serious players.

Having said all that, I certainly don’t want to take away from the abilities of Motion or Apple’s attempt at pushing it up toward the next level. The new Motion 4 is a step in the right direction, and Apple has begun the stage of trying to make it a viable choice for those consummate professionals. However, the way Apple seems to be conducting it’s business tactics to achieve this, is just plain arrogant and foolish. For a company who waged the excellent marketing behind the iPhone and has since taken 28% of the cell phone market with this ingenious ploy, this is a rather disappointing setback and will not bold well for their PR.