Apple's Motion, Xsan Were Two Most Popular Products At NAB

by , 10:00 AM EDT, June 14th, 2004

Three Apple products made the list of the top ten most popular products shown at April's NAB 2004 (National Association of Broadcasters) according to a recently released survey of attendess. Motion, Apple's new compositing solution, and Xsan, Apple's new SAN (Storage Area Network) technology, were listed as numbers 1 and 2 in the survey, which was conducted by Weinstock Media Analysis. GarageBand gave Apple the hat trick, coming in at #10 on the list.

Weinstock Media Analysis is a "consulting practice that produces syndicated and private market studies and analyses, specializing in the television and professional video industries." From the company's Web site, which we found courtesy of Macworld UK and TVTechnology.

What are the most memorable innovations for 2004?  We asked over 1,000 visitors at the NAB show in April, then we collated over 500 of those into a representative sample and recontacted them a month later to see what stuck, what seemed to fall away as hype.  Now we've got Top Ten lists in importance for every vertical market in AV.  Those lists vary.  Perhaps surprisingly, however, lots of people at the high end of film or in broadcasting are fans of inexpensive innovations, especially Apple Computer's Motion.  And lots of people with no call to use them are fans of large-screen displays.  Our unified Top Ten List of specific products for all user groups is:

TOP TEN PRODUCTS AT NAB ‘04

1. Apple Computer Motion (compositing software)
2. Apple Computer Xsan (SAN)
[...]
10. Apple Computer GarageBand (audio production software)

There's more at the Weinstock Media Analysis Web site, including a top ten list of "the most important generic technology developments" introduced at the show. Motion, Xsan, and GarageBand are all available from the Apple Store.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This is very interesting. If the survey is actually representative of attendees, Apple did very, very well at this year's NAB show. The company's products obviously struck a chord with DV professionals; even GarageBand did well, and it isn't even aimed at this market.

Hopefully this will translate into more Mac sales to the DV markets. With the world geared towards looking at total market share, irrespective of its specific relevance, a dominant position for Apple in the DV market would help the platform across the board.

Weinstock Media Analysis