Should Apple Buy Blackmagic?

Food for thought.

"As the worlds of high-tech consumer electronics and professional filmmaking increasingly overlap, the idea of Apple acquiring Blackmagic Design is a fascinating proposition."

https://m.imdb.com/news/ni64941746/?ref_=nws_nwr_li

https://ymcinema.com/2024/11/10/should- ... lackmagic/

Kind of disturbing.

I hope they don't boot me for saying this, but I think this would be amazing. I both love and hate BM for the same reason: it's cheap. Their cameras are super inexpensive which is great but their build quality is not good (besides the amazing LCDs) and their products aren't innovative. Their form factors are just weird. I don't know if their pockets were designed by shoe designers. And why are they charging for an LCD screen on the SIDE of the Pyxis LOL?? I've never seen anyone operate their camera at a 90 degree angle. Apple's advanced engineering capabilities and their world-class designs would make some out-of-this-world cameras. Of course none of that matters if this means the costs rise to be on par with Red because the Red name alone will win the day. Apple would have to keep the cost somewhere between current BM and Red. Heck, maybe iphone 17 will have an Ursa cine sensor. I can already hear Tim Cook saying, "This is the best camera Apple has ever released." Every year. Still not the second best.

On the software side, having essentially unlimited funding for R&D and especially testing would make Resolve so much better. I get what they're going for but as a loss leader, Resolve is always just close to being great. The number of bugs that just won't go away make the software almost unbearable to work with. The company's secrecy only compounds this and their inability to be able to afford to program the bugs out compounds it even more. I'm fine with Apple charging a licensing fee as long as it means the bugs get squashed and the AI and speed beats Adobe. I've also been saying for years that I'm fine with BM doing the same thing but of course they think that they're on the right track so they won't listen to suggestions. There is concern that Apple will steer Resolve towards being Mac only so if they play that game, Resolve will die. Macs are nice and all but you don't get the brute processing power of a 4090 or (soon) 5090 with a Mac. Plus their hardware is so proprietary and locked in that it's a turn off to many.

As for the I/O devices, it would probably make sense to keep those as BM products. They are a good name in that department. Plus, Apple is in the game of quantity and they just won't move a million rack devices a year.

Please no. They cannibalize everything they buy, especially software. They will take what they want or need for FCP and throw the rest in the trash. Fortunately BMD is a private company very dificult to purchase or raid.

Ric Marty

At the end of the day it's BMD's decision, but I truly hope they don't, in my opinion if they do it'll be the end of BMD. At the moment the pricing policy of BMD is unique and played a huge role in its success, I believe if Apple would acquire BMD it'll be the end of affordability, they'll make DR a subscription based, their equipment way more expensive etc... I truly hope NOT

No, no and no.
Apple cannot give any good thing to Blackmagic Design, ruin only.
I forget the list of how many software are bought and killed from apple, from software like shake to app.
They had resources to develop themself what they need, please don’t damage a good company like Blackmagic Design.
Apple is no more a dream company like developed from Jobs to give to everyone a computer, today is a simple copy and paste company that not innovate like in past. Ps written from an iPhone


Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

Galin, it wouldn't be amazing as you put it, but would be the end of Blackmagic and everything they stand for.

…but I think this would be amazing. I both love and hate BM … but their build quality is not good …

On the software side, having essentially unlimited funding for R&D and especially testing would make Resolve so much better. …

I STRONGLY disagree with you. Build quality is excellent in their price point, never had any issues with their surfaces like Color Panel, Fairlight Mixer, Speed Editor and the hardware just works … and having them support Ethernet is a HUGE plus (who want’s to pay a fortune to run fiber optics USB-C cable?) for long distance routes.

I don’t use BMD cameras, as I’m a Sony guy working on the e-Mount path … as such I don’t have any experience with BMD cameras.

As far as software, Apple will kill Resolve/Fusion immediately. Apple already have plenty of development resources for FCP X and yet, FCP X is not even close to performance and functionality of Resolve/Fusion 19 … so clearly Apple are NOT investing resources into FCP or it would be considerably better than it currently is. As far as bugs in Resolve … like what? It’s been flawless for me, far more stable than Adobe Pr/Ae and for anyone doing color grading, Resolve is the best option hands down.

I remember the days (2006-2009) when I spent $10K on Mac Pro and another $1500 on FCP (back when it was expensive) and Apple did nothing to improve FCP and even worse, they didn’t come out with faster MacPros for several years!!! I’m rendering out in days on my Mac Pro, while MS Windows users were get the same work done in hours on hardware that cost 1/3rd of what I paid to Apple … I was begging Apple to come out with more current hardware for their Mac Pro line almost daily.

Then Apple finally released their all new version of call FCP X … oh my what a disaster!! Sure it was cheaper … a lot cheaper … and it showed. Missing functionality, terrible performance, it could barely get the basics done (it was the primary reason I switched to Adobe Pr/Ae path).

Now that Adobe are telling their paying customers they don’t really own their content and Adobe can take and sell their content, I moved to BMD Resolve and never looked back. The Adobe subscription path was a joke, the updates I would get from the subscription were terrible, always (no exceptions) produce instability and performance problems. It was so bad with Adobe, that I ended up going back to Pr/Ae from 2017 because it worked. Every new updated from Adobe would break existing functionality, horrible!

The ONLY time I’ve ran into issues with Resolve has been due to a 3rd party Plug-In, NOT Resolve. I’m getting so much more done now with Resolve and BMD surfaces.

Having heard this news, and having been in other smaller companies that were purchased by a larger company, it’s usually a sign of financial trouble. When a small company goes shopping for “buyers”, it usually means their financial projections are not looking good. To attract a buyer like Apple, BMD would likely use some creative accounting to make their company look in much better financial shape that it really is … of course, I HOPE this is not the case, but having gone thru a few company buy-outs over the decades, that is the pattern I observed.

Selling to Apple would end my customer relationship with BMD.

Rob

Should Apple Buy Blackmagic?

Oh please, Apple is large enough already, and they would force their proprietary philosophy on the users.

I STRONGLY disagree with you. Build quality is excellent in their price point, never had any issues with their surfaces like Color Panel, Fairlight Mixer, Speed Editor and the hardware just works … and having them support Ethernet is a HUGE plus (who want’s to pay a fortune to run fiber optics USB-C cable?) for long distance routes.
Rob

As for the I/O devices, it would probably make sense to keep those as BM products. They are a good name in that department. Plus, Apple is in the game of quantity and they just won't move a million rack devices a year.

I was referring to the cameras. There's no excuse for hdmi ports breaking off and falling into the body. The pocket form factor is a shoe. FFS, the pockets have 2 cage mounting points directly opposite each other so you get a camera that rotates in the cage. Pro level. To be clear, BRAW is amazing. The LCD screens are amazing. The price is amazing. There's so much good there that it is a head scratcher as to why certain things are done the way they are.


We're all entitled to our opinions. You can have the opinion that BM is good at writing software even though almost every post is about critical bugs in their latest release (and almost every release in the first half of any version's life.) What about posts about workflows, methods, hacks? Nope, just bugs.
You can have the opinion that "Ooh, there are too many configurations for BM to possibly test" but the fact is that they have a LOT of people testing and bugs persist in release after release. I don't mean to be critical. I obviously love Resolve and want it to meet its potential. I think the infusion from Apple could get it there.

I don't think Apple would end Resolve. Final Cut is a good program. It just is. But it doesn't have Fusion. It doesn't have Fairlight. It doesn't have Windows support. What it DOES have is the new magnetic mask that annihilates magic mask's marketing. You can't say with a straight face that magic mask works as advertised. It just does not. Apple is investing in AI and that is paying dividends that I'd like to cash in on.

To be clear, I'm not flaming or fan boying. I lost my production business because Resolve can't not crash. I want it to be best.

Nothing wrong with being critical or disagreement.

I disagree with you that Apple will make Resolve better or BMD cameras any better. Apple aren’t know for making large format cameras at any point in the companies life cycle, zero experience. What Apple did do is take FCP and turned it into garbage with FCP X at 1/6th price … sure FCP X got better over the decade but it’s still missing so much and might be good enough for YouTube content, but beyond that is not really used in larger production shops.

If you are just looking for improvements for one feature “magic mask” and think AI is the solution, I’ll disagree. AI is very much dependent on source … and with all sources, garbage in = garbage out. AI’s accuracy is still very unreliable and even at only a 2% pattern miss requires manual manipulation/edit regardless. I’ve never been 100% “happy” with any AI tool be it Topaz, Adobe, Apple, others … it’s rare to not have to make manual adjustments.

I don’t know Resolve sales numbers, but based on Adobe or Apple threads of issues vs. BMD Resolve list of issues, Adobe/Apple have A LOT more significant problems.

I’ll agree that Resolve Plug-In support is “less than stable” and I’ve only used one from Topaz and it was performance impractical. Also don’t know what equipment, codecs, plug-ins, etc. you are using with Resolve … maybe I just got lucky with the Sony path FX6 and FX9 and A7RV and BURANO 8K… I’ll admit $25K body and $12K lense is the upper range for me.

I'm a newbee but hoping that the owners of this private company stay 'single'. Experience of un-named other providers support is why I moved to BM.

I'm a newbee but hoping that the owners of this private company stay 'single'. Experience of un-named other providers support is why I moved to BM.

+1.

Apple buying Vermont is fascinating, the idea of Apple buying Blackmagic is not.

Good Luck

Besides, Apple hates “Nodes” … Shake was nodes, Resolve loves nodes … I love nodes … Apple not so much.

Resolve would most definitely be killed off … even more so now that FCP 11 has just been released … it’s how Apple grows market share … they love Adobe’s AI cloud “nothing is really yours and we can sell it as needed” model … $$$.