Final Cut Pro is 12 years old - June 21, 2023

Here's to the entire FCP team at Apple for the last 12 years.

And to a great year 13 with FCP 10.7/11!

June 21, 2011 was a day that turned the non-linear editing world upside down with the initial release of Final Cut Pro X. And on the same day Apple stopped selling FCP7. Depending on which side of the FCPX fence you were on most likely reflects your opinion to this day.

If you were using an earlier version of Final Cut Pro, Apple presented you with a cliff; either take the risk and jump across to FCPX or stay "safe" and continue to edit with a legacy FCP version. There was no path from FCP7 to FCPX on its initial launch.

The two million+ legacy FCP users in 2011 could not open their projects in FCPX and continue editing. FCPX was a version 1.0 app, not three versions past FCP7 as the name 10 might suggest. Everyone who decided to give FCPX a try had to start from scratch.

So what did you do? Did you jump across the FCPX canyon? Did you use FCPX 10.0 like some of us or wait to dive in on a later release? I started using 10.0 on day one, as did thousands of others, for basic projects and more importantly to learn this unique forward thinking NLE. I could see the future path of non-linear editing it was paving. But I also continued to use FCP 7.0.3 for quite some time waiting for FCPX to mature and add back necessary features for most of my work. I'm still waiting for some of those missing features in 2023.

As it happened, I wrote the first Final Cut Pro X article for Ken Stone's great FCP website on May 16, 2011 -
 Final Cut Pro X Rundown.

Now, dozens and dozens of updates later, and every one of them for free, we're up to FCPX 10.6.6. In 2023. Many editors are waiting for FCP version 10.7/11.

Also in 2023, Apple released Final Cut for iPad.

Join the Final Cut for iPad Tips and Tricks FaceBook group here

Final Cut Pro is a forward-looking NLE. It doesn't have a rear view mirror and that annoys some editors. Something like FCP's magnetic timeline is very unique and useful and at the same time is very divisive among video editors. But the FCP team did include a tool to effectively turn it off.

Even with ~5 million users, FCPX hasn't been able to have a major impact in Hollywood as some have continuously commented on over the years. But there there are some professionals using Final Cut Pro for major Hollywood films, some using FCPX at TV stations worldwide and some using FCPX for other professional level projects.

And Final Cut Pro has a very large 3rd party developer community that is growing all the time.

Apple (2011) Las Vegas Supermeet - Final Cut Legacy Installed base hits two million

Apple (2013) via Larry Jordan - "The installed base of FCP X users exceeded that of FCP 7."

Apple (2014) via Larry Jordan - there are "More than one million separate installations of Final Cut Pro X"

Apple NAB 2017 "Two Million Seats of Final Cut Pro X"

Apple NAB 2018, "2.5 Million seats of Final Cut Pro X"

Latest Final Cut TV & Coffee LIVE!

I've started a weekly Worldwide Final Cut Pro chat every Saturday Morning usually at 11 AM EST

Final Cut Pro growth by numbers