Avid kills Liquid

G

GuyS

Active member
It is interesting how Avid bought Pinnacle and then threw up the smoke screen of apparently supporting the "professional" aspect of Liquid. They issued one more version called AVID Liquid 7.2...

Recently, AVID announced that they were returning the product to their Consumer Division. This is unfortunate. I think the Liquid product has many features that are exceptionally unique and so novel.

Putting the marketing considerations of Liquid cannibalizing other Avid "profession" products aside, as a user, I must consider the value of time. There is so much time involved learning how to use a tool. As a decision maker, I must weigh the investment of time to the value of the product.

Alas, there are a few companies out there who are performers. Not only do they offer good value but they give you the security of longevity. The challange is to find them!
 
From the announcement in the Liquid forum at Avid.com this doesn't sound as bad as I expected it to be. The Liquid line of products isn't disappearing, Pinnacle is just going to be handling all aspects of it. Since they were the ones originally in control, and Liquid developed into the popular program that it is under their guidance, it sounds like they'll take good care of it. And since they're owned by Avid now, you'll still have a trickle-down effect (a very slow trickle, mind you--ask any Xpress Pro owner :) ) of new technology from Avid's other products.
 
Imagine Liquid with 24p. This forum is primarily a community of film makers so understandably Liquid is probably not too well known here. But to those that use Liquid it is a dynamite app. Particularly the interface. It is wonderful being able to change it to suit your workflow.

Problem is... if you want to have the film look, 24p is neccessary. Early Liquid never had that ability. If Liquid had been given 24p after AVID bought it from Pinnacle it probably would have cannibalized the other AVID products. Not a great marketing decision.

If AVID is sending Liquid back to the Pinnacle division what advantage do you think there was in purchasing it in the first place? The only I reason I can think of is to kill it.
 
GuyS said:
If AVID is sending Liquid back to the Pinnacle division what advantage do you think there was in purchasing it in the first place? The only I reason I can think of is to kill it.
Click to expand...

I really, really don't think Avid will kill Liquid. The advantage to buying Pinnacle was to instantly enter a new market: The one-guy shops and event people. If you make a program catered to that segment then you have to advertise it, get it off the ground, work out version 1 bugs, etc. Just buying another company gives you a mature product and an already installed userbase. Avid has done this before with M-Audio. If you look at that purchase as an example, then M-Audio is pretty much the same company it was before, but now they get to interact directly with ProTools (as Digidesign is owned by Avid) which they couldn't do before.

Historically Avid doesn't buy companies to kill their products. They buy companies, mostly let the companies keep doing what they were doing, except now Avid's name is in more places and it affects Avid's bottom line.

Before Avid bought Pinnacle you should have seen the number of people on forums saying "Xpress Pro is too expensive, Avid needs a less expensive product." Then they acquired Pinnacle and solved that problem. Killing Liquid would be a public relations nightmare and that's something Avid doesn't need right now.
 
It has more potential than 90% of their product line.
I'ma say they will kill it because that would not make good sense. This would match their every move for the last 5 years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top