MatsushitMatsushita, Apple Develop Editing Systema, Apple Develop Editing System

[diablojota]

http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_ge.jsp?news_id=cmt-110w1194&feed=cmt&date=20040419

TOKYO, Apr 19, 2004 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Japanese electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Apple Computer Inc. plan to market a digital video editing system that would simplify and lower the costs for TV stations and production companies in creating TV broadcasts, movies and DVDs.

The technology links Apple's Macintosh-brand computers and digital video-editing software to a soon-to-be-released Matsushita video recorder, Yoshihiro Kitadeya, a spokesman for Matsushita, said Monday. Matsushita also manufactures products under the Panasonic brand.

It would allow TV program producers, film studios and advertisers to churn out programs, ads and movies in the increasingly popular format that high-definition television sets and digital movie projectors use, Kitadeya said.

The package, which combines text and video and digital animation, is expected to cost less than $37,000, well below the $463,000 price tag for conventional production and editing equipment, Kitadeya said.

The Matsushita-Apple collaboration adds to the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker's leading product lineup of digital editing software and tools.

For the Osaka-based electronics firm, the technology offers the company a chance to catch up to Japan's Sony Corp., one of the world's leading makers of broadcasting equipment.

The two companies are also working on a new digital TV editing system that stores information on a card instead of video tapes, and is expected to speed data downloads onto a personal computer, Kitadeya said.

Matsushita Electric closed up 0.95 percent to $14.80 on Monday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.


Copyright 2004 Associated Press, All rights reserved

 

[Giaguara]

Very interesting.

 

[mindbend]

It's just such a shame that Apple is on its last legs. You know, just about to close its doors.

End sarcasm.

 

[Satcomer]

My suspicions were on the money. Apple is teaming with companies to take over the professional video market. I wonder how other video mac software developers (and traditional pro video companies) take this news? You can bet Microsoft took up notice and there software teams are scrambling to counter this. It wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft tries to break this deal any which way they can.

 

[mindbend]

What will really throw a monkey wrnech in all of this is when/if M$'s HD codec (WMP9) is ratified as the standard. You better believe M$ will do everything in their power to screw over Apple in terms of making it really difficult to incorporate their codec into Apple's tools. Of course, if it's really, truly a standard, it shouldn't matter, but we all know better…

Still, great news. It will be harder and harder for M$ to dominate. Every little bit helps.

 

[Ripcord]

What will really throw a monkey wrnech in all of this is when/if M$'s HD codec (WMP9) is ratified as the standard. You better believe M$ will do everything in their power to screw over Apple in terms of making it really difficult to incorporate their codec into Apple's tools. Of course, if it's really, truly a standard, it shouldn't matter, but we all know better…

Still, great news. It will be harder and harder for M$ to dominate. Every little bit helps.

So Apple's shooting for the mid-to-high-end of the market (including parts of the highest). Any idea how big a market this is? Just wondering if this could do for Apple monitarily what the edu market used to do for it "back in the day" (obviously won't be able to match the *exposure* that the edu market gives, but still).

Apple's done a really good job in the media production market across the board (including the low-end), at least in the short-term.

I wonder how much they're pushing away Adobe with this, though? Premiere and After Effects are not terribly wonderful products and not a lot of people would/do miss them, but I'd say it'd be disasterous if, say, Photoshop and Illustrator were to disappear (which have been somewhat subsidized by Apple's close relationship with Adobe. If the share of Mac-users of those products drops to, say, 15%, it'd be much more likely that the products disappear if Apple has royally pissed Adobe off across the board and do not seem like "good partners")