On Nov 20, 2013, at 7:55 AM, Craig Parmerlee <[email protected]> wrote:
What isn't so clear is what the new direction is. Are they going the way of Avid, essentially shutting it down and milking the cash cow? It doesn't really appear so. If that isn't the idea, then what are they trying to do? Avids shutting down? I don't think so..... I would point out that Finale 2014 essentially provides no real advancement in the start of the art. It is clearly a better implementation of the same old features than what we had with 2011 and 2012. But there is nothing at all innovative in this package. That's not really a criticism. Other than some typical bugs that I'm sure will be worked out in due course, I really like Finale 2014 and don't regret the upgrade at all. It "feels" better to use. Lots of little things seem to work better, It's easy to throw around "there is no innovation", but what do you really mean by that? Did they not include that feature that you wanted but you've never spelled out? There are plenty of things that move notation forward in finale 2014. But without real innovation: a) you cannot ask much for the upgrade price, and b) not many users will rush forward with their wallets open. And that makes for a business case that simply doesn't work. You have to either strip it down to the thinnest possible skeleton crew or else you have to make a commitment to truly innovate. There is no middle ground. The cash cow strategy would be attractive financially, but probably only works for another year or two as Steinberg and others should be bringing fresher products to the market. Again, what do you want? What would be "real innovation"? Making it work better on Mac os x? Providing more sounds? Define a fileformat for the future? What? I think both finale and Sibelius are pretty much the top of what you can do with notation. I don't really know what people expect other than little refinements to the programs in each version. The fact that MakeMusic did create several new openings gives me hope that they are going to try to get back into an innovation mode, which is the only way the product will be able to exist 5 years from now. So your "expert" analysis is that these new openings are really the way towards innovation? Hardly. Innovation starts at the top and I don't see anything that makes me believe the top of the organization is poised to magically start "innovating". But I don't think they did what avid did, which was to basically shit can the whole development team. Also, I don't see the Steinberg guys doing anything amazing either.....and I have been following their blog. If they somehow merge cubase with something like Sibelius then that would be awesome, but....at this point they don't have anything nor any real timeframe on anything. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
