I've loved you, I've used you, I've made books about you, but now, Final Cut Pro, I think Apple has ended our 20-year affair

I've been using Final Cut Pro for around twenty years. If it wasn't for Final Cut Pro, I might not even have ever used a Mac computer, and now there is very little in my day-to-day life which Apple doesn't have a hand in. But on January 28, an ominous-sounding policy decision of Apples comes into play that might be the end of all those love affairs.

Apple, you see, has announced Apple Creator Studio, a subscription package which will grant access to Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro (on Mac and iPad), Motion, Compressor, and MainStage.

As a long-time owner of Final Cut Pro (and, to a lesser extent, the graphics tool Motion), I have loved the fact that the app just updates itself when Apple creates new features and improvements without any extra assault on my wallet. As an Apple customer, it is, admittedly, a long-suffering cash container, but, in this one area, the company has remained respectful.

That said, I suspected the writing was on the wall when iPad features started requiring extra purchases, but nevertheless cool new tools arrived on my Mac – the only version of FCP I really cared about – so I was happy.

Unlike my experience with Photoshop and the other Adobe tools, which has never been great from a financial perspective. I remember the regular need to buy a new version of the software (with the big old box, disks, and manuals) – but that has long since been replaced with the dreadful pain of a large-scale bundle of apps and services, only some of which I want, for a massive fee.

With Adobe, that is the Creative Cloud Pro.

Now, though, I just know that the 'Creator Studio' is Apple pushing me in the same direction.

Apple's pricing is $129/£129 a year or $12.99/£12.99 a month, but I don't want Logic Pro and I'd prefer to stick to Photoshop. Ideally I'd like to keep Final Cut, of course, because I know it and because – I thought – I'd already paid for it.

Apple says, that, unlike Adobe, it won't force users to subscribe, but several AI-enhanced tools for Final Cut Pro were announced at the same time, and I can't help but feel they won't all be available to me if I don't cough up. Premium content for Keynote, Pages, and Numbers (yes, a spreadsheet) will already exist only for subscribers, so Apple is clearly happy to draw the distinction.

Once these lines are drawn, things don't generally get better for users in my experience. Adobe took four years, from 2013 to 2017, to fully transition away from selling non-subscription editions of Photoshop (excluding Photoshop Elements).

It's even easier for Apple, which already has all the hard work done as the App Store has the financial mechanics built and in place in the operating system.

The problem for Apple that I'm not sure whoever came up with this scheme has thought of is this: I hate subscriptions, and I'm not alone. And I'll do anything I can to avoid having two subscriptions to creative apps where I need one – even switching to a new video editor and learning from scratch.

I'm pretty sure that Premiere is one of Adobe's tools, and I'll definitely have no need for Pixelmator if I've got Photoshop, whereas what, Apple, have you got to offer me instead of InDesign?

I'll be sad, but this time Apple might have made me do some financial planning.

And that, Apple, might be a very bad idea in general...

And once I don't use a Mac-only piece of software to save money... well, suddenly a lot of money-saving things start looking possible. Why would I really need a Mac? Or an iPhone, come to that...

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