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Today Apple made good on their June promise by making Final Cut Pro X (FCP X) available for download. Apple delivered a sneak peak of FCP X back in April, but the company was very mum about Final Cut's complimentary applications, and gave little indication if they would be included in some form of FCP Studio suite, sold separately, or removed from Apple's lineup altogether.

Apple has answered the questions in full today. Motion 5 and Compressor are sold separately via the Mac App Store for $49.99 each. Own a Mac, spend $100 and you have two professional tools at your fingertips. Amazing. Final Cut Pro X is also available via the Mac App Store for $299.99.

Motion includes a bevy of new tools both the professional and prosumer will love. Whether it's templates for the enthusiast, or advanced chroma keying for the pro, Motion 5 offers a wide range of new goodies. But regardless of what type of user dives into the software the entire application has been re-written on a solid 64-bit foundation, revealing how serious Apple considers this market. In addition, Motion delivers resolution independence and a streamlined, consistent user interface. Motion 5 should quiet any naysayer from claiming the FCP X family of apps are now consumer-level toys — nothing could be further from the truth.

Compressor does not have a numeric version in it's name, but received a welcome update. Custom exporting of settings directly into FCP X is hot and the settings can be shared with other FCP X users, even if they do not own Compressor. Other new abilities include streamlined library settings and built-in distributed encoding, but we at T-GAAP are most curious about HTTP live streaming support. Many more features arrive in Apple's new Compressor software, and again, I must stress Compressor and Motion 5 can be had for only $49.99 each.

How does this effect the pro video market overall? It certainly isn't good news for Adobe. Jonny Evans of Computerworld has more on that story here.

It had been rumored Apple was updating their retail display windows today, possibly showcasing the new FCP suite, but our local Portland, OR stores have received no such treatment as of this AM. Display treatment aside, Apple's strategy to attack both ends of their user spectrum during the summer months is brilliant, and we can only guess this leaves the fall for an iPad 3 and iPhone 5 attack. We can't wait. But for now, we'll enjoy Apple's new Final Cut tools, being more than satisfied with what was delivered.

Related Articles:

• NAB: Final Cut Pro X
• Mac Pro Update with Thunderbolt
• NAB and Final Cut Pro 8 Rapidly Approaching

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