So what about Phenomenon?
 

So what ever happened to Phenomenon, the replacement for Shake. Last I heard it was supposed to come out in 2008. That was back in 2006. I have not heard anything since then. I was really hoping that when FCS3 came out we would also get Phenomenon.

The forums were abuzz with the replacement for Shake as far back as late '07 and indeed I do remember seeing a published white-paper about Apple's purported replacement for Shake "coming soon" which is why they lowered the pricing for Shake. Talk about getting us all-set-and-ready for it's replacement, right?

Chalk it up to a list of things Apple has chosen not to do.

With all the recent decisions made by Apple both on hardware and software the past 2 years and the complete lack of development in the FCS the future of Apple pro-video related apps is in serious question as far as I'm concerned. Especially when "educational" pricing is only $100 less than retail.

So lets see... No Phenomenon, no "real" Blu-Ray authoring, no interface updates, no fixing media mangler, just a smattering of added features and no real educational pricing - in this economy no less.

C'mon, Apple. Really?

It was more important to bring video editing to the iPhone than to give pro users better tools. And why not? You think Apple lives on sales from pro apps?

Personally I think Steve Jobs sees a cash-cow in i-Products and views pro-apps as overhead. And this lack-luster forward motion from Apple in it's FC suite looks more like a company slowly finding an exit strategy for a product line than trying to build it up.

Looks and smells too much like when Adobe ramped-down and killed GoLive.

Then again they could be waiting for Snow leopard. I heard at one point that the engine would be built around the Motion engine so it would make use of the gpu. Advanced gpu and 64 bit support may be whats holding it back. Who knows. This really had to be one of my saddest days in software history. I still feel personally that Shake is one of the best programs ever made.

Shake is removed from the online Apple Store today, I've read on Appleinsider...

As that article points out, Apple did in fact plan on releasing Phenomenon to replace Shake however Apple did not incorporate nearly all the feature of Shake into FCP.

It's also interesting to note that all the Mac-based news sites, AppleInsider, MacNN, MacRumors etc, are all about the iPhone and other related iProducts. Rarely do you see anything talking about pro-apps or hardware anymore - unless it's i-product related.

As I mentioned earlier everything Apple is doing - and not doing- with FCS indicates a gradual winding down of a product line, not building it up.

WOW! All the links to Shake now point to the new Final Cut Studio.

Major bummer! Is this it? Is Shake gone forever?

What a sad day for the visual effects industry. Apple just totally killed one of the best pieces of software VFX artists have ever used. As a compositor this really breaks my heart.

It would have been great if they included it for free in FCS 3, like they did with Color, which used to be thousands of dollars also.

And I heard Shake is still being used on many motion pictures. I'm not a visual fx artist but still... Apple, what the hell are you up too lately?