Why is iMovie so much better than Final Cut Express?

I spend a decent part of my week editing videos. I have both Final Cut Express and iMovie at my disposal, and I’m very familiar with both of them. More often than not, I find myself using iMovie to do the majority of my production. Why? Because it’s fast and easy. Final Cut Express is ancient by software standards, and it takes longer for me to accomplish many of the same tasks in FCE.

It makes me wonder why Apple has allowed Final Cut Express to fall so far behind iMovie. Sure, it still has more granular controls, but its interface is painfully old. It most certainly isn’t up to the high standard Apple sets for modern software. At this point, it’s starting to get a little embarrassing.

Is Apple killing off Final Cut Express, or are they just way behind schedule for a revamp? More importantly, why aren’t more people talking about this? These questions have me puzzled as to Apple’s strategy. Maybe there is something fantastic in the works that will blow our skirts up, but I still don’t quite get what is taking so long.

As of today, there is talk of the next version of Final Cut Pro being announced very soon. Hopefully there will be some Final Cut Express news as well. It really needs some love about now. Final Cut Pro last saw a major update in July of 2009, but it was November 2007 when the last revision of Final Cut Express launched. Too long by any measurement.

While we wait for Apple to do something (anything), what are we supposed to do? Use old crappy software? Switch to an Adobe product? Maybe Apple would rather you just deal with using iMovie. What do you think is up? Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below this post. I’m sincerely curious about possible theories around Apple dropping the FCE ball.