Apple's Final Cut Pro X faces harsh criticism from the professional community. (credit Apple.com)

In what some say is becoming a spectacular disappointment, this much-anticipated tenth edition is falling flat on its face. For professionals who have come to rely heavily on the Final Cut Pro series, Apple’s failure to meet expectations is bewildering.

The Final Cut Pro series has long been a program of choice for high-quality video editing. Over the past nine years, the program has built up an impressive résumé, having edited such blockbusters as (500) Days of Summer, 300, and The Social Network. And while Final Cut Pro has been garnering an impressive share of the market from its main competitor, Avid, this most recent release threatens to reverse that trend—or significantly slow its progress.

Of the twelve hundred reviews for FCPX posted on the Mac Store product page since its release, a majority have been negative. The average rating is just two and a half stars out of five total, with the number of one-star reviews greatly outnumbering those of five.

Faced with ridicule of this extent, the question naturally becomes: Is it really that bad? Apple products are universally lauded for their streamlined interfaces, powerful processing, incredible stability, and, perhaps most importantly, intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces. Anybody who has even a nodding familiarity with iPods, iPhones, or Macs understands that these tenets are central to Apple's modus operandi.

However, this time, Apple’s strategy of appealing to the everyday consumer may have backfired. Final Cut Pro X's “enhancements” are, in practice, massive simplifications, causing professional users to throw up their hands in utter exasperation. 

Customer review from Apple's Store shows users aren't happy with the upgrade. (via Apple.com)

Or, in the words of a particularly eloquent Mac Store commenter as quoted on the technology blog TechCrunch, “It's as if they took a beautifully written novel and turned it into a children's book.”

Final Cut Pro X looks disquietingly similar to iMovie, Apple's simple video editing software that comes free with all Mac computers. The new software lacks many of the export features available in older versions, including the ability to output to video tape and the ability to display edited footage on an external TV monitor or other dedicated screen. To Apple’s credit, they are working to reintroduce these features in later updates of the software, but for now, users who have grown to rely on those features are in the dark.

Adding to the frustration of users, Apple has stopped selling the older versions of FCP, including 7, Studio, and Express. They're simply no longer available; it's the radically different Final Cut Pro X, or nothing.  As a remedy, Apple has added the option to install FCPX alongside previous versions of the software, but this only benefits those who already own it; new users of the Final Cut Pro series have no choice but to learn the new software, which may push users towards Avid’s Media Composer instead.

“Everything just changed in post,” Final Cut Pro X's tagline boldly asserts. That's certainly true, but not in the sense Apple intended it.

Reach Sean McGuire here. 

Final Cut Pro X receiving flak on mainstream media: