Last month, Apple one the popular Final Cut Pro plug-in maker: MotionVFX. It’s not clear what that purchase will become, but it’s based on his quick pursuit Launching Apple Creator StudioIt’s highly plausible that Apple will integrate its own templates, effects, and other offerings as a feature of Apple Creator Studio.
While this is interesting in itself, I think it’s worth talking about the impact behind it.
It’s an indication of where Apple’s head is at
As someone who has followed Apple for a long time, it has been disappointing to see the company stagnate in areas where they used to excel – software quality being the biggest. It also feels like Apple rarely brings us features before we want them and often follows industry trends. The presentation of Apple Intelligence is the most obvious example. Despite being one of the best-positioned companies to implement personal AI, Apple has yet to do so, more than 3 years after the AI hype cycle began.
For better or worse, Apple only seems interested in investing in technology when there’s a hyper-clear path to profitability from the start-up, which has always seemed short-sighted to me, seeing as Apple has tons of money and is willing to take a little risk to ensure they stay at the forefront of technology.
Either way, for the first time in more than a decade, Apple seems interested in investing in its pro software once again because of the subscription incentive. Question: will it scale?
If you’re a heavy user of the Messages app and iMessage, you’re probably well aware of how many clumsy bugs it has. Strange problems in group chats, frequent sync issues, recently introduced visual bugs where texts are attributed to the wrong person, etc. I feel like iMessage has a lot of potential to be next generation AI platformand if Apple could monetize it, maybe we’d have a well-functioning Messages app. Just maybe.
Wrap it up
Overall, this trend makes me wonder if Apple Intelligence will require a subscription once Siri is upgraded and out the door. It might not be obvious, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple required an iCloud+ subscription for features strictly included in Private Cloud Computing.
We’ve already seen an example of this in the new Apple Invites program launched last year. If you don’t have iCloud+, you can’t create or share events using Apple Invites.
What do you think of Apple’s latest software direction? Sound off in the comments.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
Follow Michael: X/Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram
FTC: We use automatic affiliate links that generate income. More.
