Apple wants you to produce an 8K blockbuster with its $50 video app

By James On May 9, 2023

Apple has announced two of its best creative apps are set to launch on iPad, delivering editing tools for professional content creators in and out of the studio.

Widely considered some of the best video editing software by those in the industry, Final Cut Pro is now coming to Apple’s portable devices sporting an “all-new touch interface” and tools for faster workflows.

Joining the pro-grade video editor in the App Store on May 23 is Logic Pro. FCP’s arrival could show that firms are starting to take mobile content creation seriously. – but what’s the catch with what the company is calling, “the ultimate mobile studio”?

Final Cut Pro on iPad: What to expect

Vying to become one of the best video editing apps for iPad, FCP features include a new jog wheel, Multi-Touch gestures, and a stock library of hi-res graphics, effects, and audio.

Look out, too, for Live Drawing with support for Apple Pencil. It just might turn out to be one of the best drawing apps of its type, letting users write and draw directly onto their videos.

For professionals, the new multi-camera editing and Pro camera modes promise more control over every project – whether you’re working with a single or a multi-cam set-up. This includes monitoring audio, and controlling focus, exposure, white balance, and more. Users on an iPad Pro with M2 can even record in Apple’s high-resolution ProRes video format.

The app, which packs in the ubiquitous machine learning, will also let users import projects made in iMovie for iOS, Apple’s best video editing software for beginners. It’s another display of the company’s embrace of the mobile studio.

Accompanying FCP’s App Store debut comes Logic Pro, a strong contender for best audio editor, with its own set of portable, touch-friendly tools and professional plugins.

Pro promises for professionals

Final Cut Pro has been a thorn in Apple’s side for a while now. In April 2022, an open letter signed by frustrated TV and film editors (opens in new tab) pleaded with CEO Tim Cook to “renew its public commitment to the professional filmmaking industry and its visionary product.”

In response, the company outlined (opens in new tab) a series of nebulous commitments to training, workshops, and “regular consultations”. It silenced the majority for a time – that Apple even responded came as a surprise – but lacked the specificity many creators wanted.

Now, we might be seeing the first fruits from those consultations held by Apple’s panel of industry experts. Bringing Final Cut Pro to iPad feels like a step in the right direction – and one that should’ve been on the to-do list for some time.

With Apple’s launch following the release of DaVinci Resolve for iPad and LumaFusion to Android, it’s clear, as they become more powerful, portable devices are becoming a key battleground. That can only be a good thing for mobile content creators – whether crafting videos for a YouTube channel or the big screen.

Apple hasn’t expressed how much of the Final Cut Pro experience is coming to iPad (DaVinci Resolve, for example, is almost identical across desktop and tablet). But there is at least one massive disparity: despite a perpetual license for the desktop edition, iPad users will need a subscription priced at $4.99 a month or $49 a year with a one-month free trial.