Apple's First Official Response on FCPX

Question

Well, I found this on the Apple website today. It's an FAQ addressing some overall concerns by the pro market. Now I'm not exactly a pro yet, but if I try to jump in a pros shoes, unfortunately this doesn't give me much promise. It does say some good things, but it's a lot of "yes you can do these tasks actually" (but, these aren't actual real concerns or are things that are trivial - for example, they mention you can import media from previous versions of FCP into FCPX....well, duh.) and a lot of "we'll have 3rd parties be able to do it" (which, I'd prefer Apple to say we'll take care of it ourselves).
But nonetheless, I wanted to make sure you all got to see it. Here's the link: http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/faq/
Here are some highlights:
According to Apple, there is no way to translate FCP7 projects to FCPX without losing data. Not very definitive, but it sounds like Apple will not be working on a converter. I suppose. Hard to tell
FCP7 will work with Mac OSX Lion
Apple and Camera Manufactuers are working together to add more camera support for the 64bit FCPX.
Sounds like no tape deck support will be done, as they refer to AJA and Blackmagic for this
FCPX WILL have a Multicam feature in "the next major release"
Developers of 3rd party programs will need to update their software to support the 64bit FCPX
Sounds like Apple wants you to keep scratch disks for render files, and the project files, in the same married location to make it easier to move. (But sad day for me, I'd personally like to keep these seperate!)
On the ability to export to XML: "Not yet, but we know how important XML export is to our developers and our users, and we expect to add this functionality to Final Cut Pro X. We will release a set of APIs in the next few weeks so that third-party developers can access the next-generation XML in Final Cut Pro X." So XML will be supported, but it sounds like 3rd party rather than Apple will be doing it... Automatic Duck has something you can use now
Once those XML APIs are released, 3rd parties will be able to release support for OMF, AAF, EDL, and other exchange formats
Want to customize your export settings? You will need to buy Compressor
Volume licensing will be available soon
Apple mentions "the next major release" and a "an update this summer" I wonder if they are one in the same, and if Multicam will come later this summer.
So, I think the biggest thing for me personally is the multicam support which would be huge for me. Unfortunately however, this seemed more of an "Apple Defense" rather than going: "Hey let's collaborate a little bit." I know a lot of people including me want better FCPX/Motion5 round-trip support, or maybe the ability to change scratch disk locations indepedent of project file locations. I know these little things are probably trivial to other things in the pro world, but again it's that attitude of let's definitely do it our way and add a few features vs. hey lets listen to specifics and add them in if it will make people happier.
Oh well, what are your guys thoughts?

Answer 1

Thoughts?  This has been posted like 3 times already