randyApple's former Chief Architect of Video Applications Randy Ubillos announced on Twitter today that he is retiring after working for 20 years at the Cupertino-based company on professional video and photo software. Ubillos is best known as the creator of the first three versions of Adobe Premiere and KeyGrip, which was sold to Apple and released as Final Cut Pro.

While not a household name like some other Apple employees, Ubillos is well known among those who have used Final Cut Pro or other professional video software. In June 2010, he made a brief appearance on stage during WWDC to demo the latest version of iMovie for iPhone 4 and returned on stage in October 2010 during Apple's "Back to the Mac" event for another demo.

Top Rated Comments

Jamieserg Avatar
131 months ago
and he left us with FCPX?
Which is a fantastic, fast and versatile NLE. When it launched it was lacking features but now it's on par and even superior to the competition in some ways. If you're into your editing you should give it another look if you haven't in a while. It's a different way of editing and has done away from using film analogies, in this digital video world.

I mean each to there own and there's not really a wrong NLE.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
adamjackson Avatar
131 months ago
Randy and his teams have done some really incredible things for video editors around the world. FCP @ $999 was an amazing break through in pricing back when Avid cost 50K+ for an installation. I remember running FCP 3 on a Power Book and thinking....this sort of power on a laptop isn't available anywhere else. iMovie mainstreamed video editing unlike any other product.

The space is full now of cheap video editors but at the time, FCP and iMovie were huge selling points for Macintosh.

I imagine his vested stock options over the last 20 years will leave him with a very good retirement.

AAPL was trading @ $1.50 in 1995 when you factor in splits. It's @ $129 today. I'd say he did pretty well. :)
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
brock2621 Avatar
131 months ago
So can we trash FCP X now and get FCP 7 with 64bit support and multicore support?

Sweet mother no...... please no. I've been using FCP-X editing RED Dragon 6k raw .r3d files straight out of camera on a freaking iMac's without having to render. Truly amazing.

The ability to auto sync audio on import? PluralEyes is required to do that in Premiere and that plugin itself costs as much as FCP-X.

The ability to create a group with a single clip, and then use that 20 times in an edit and changing color on ALL 20 of those clips with a single click is amazing. Also, seamless integration with Davinci Resolve is priceless.

It had a bumpy launch but has bloomed into an amazing and critical piece of software that runs insanely smooth.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kariya Avatar
131 months ago
Apple bleeding some veteran talent recently. Hopefully the apprentices have been well trained.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
yoak Avatar
131 months ago
I use both premiere and fcx, and fcx is just faster (to edit) when you get the hang of it. The only thing that bugs me is that I can't set the quality of the playback of my RED 6K and 5k like in premiere. Fcx handles it automatically and I often would like less quality on my aging Mac pro for better performance.
I now love things I laughed at in the beginning; Share to Vimeo or YouTube.
I thought that was for holiday videos, but it's great to show client versions this way. All I have to do when finished a version, hit share, it's renderd, coded and uploaded to Vimeo. I'm already sitting in my sofa when an email tells me it's ready to be shared from Vimeo and I can do that from my iPhone
Thanks.

I do understand that other nles might be better suited in a larger collaborate environment, but I'm not in one, is FCX works great for me on a lot of projects
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LethalWolfe Avatar
131 months ago
GOOD RIDDANCE! This guy destroyed the Apple Pro applications market. He ruined FCP, and overall did nothing to help professional video editors.

Maybe now we can re-claim the pro portion of our apps and hardware for actual pros.

Nothing to help pro video editors? He was one of the original creators of Premiere and then left to create KeyGrip (which was purchased by Apple and became FCP). When people in post talk about the 'three A's' it's Adobe, Apple and Avid and this guy has finger prints all over the NLEs from two of those companies.

With regards to X, Randy was originally working on a video logging app as a companion piece to FCP (kinda like what Prelude is to PPro) and when Jobs saw it he fell in love and said that's what he wants the next FCP to look like, and X was born.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Friday April 18, 2025 5:16 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday April 17, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Triad

Apple's 20th Anniversary iPhone May Finally Go All Screen

Tuesday April 15, 2025 6:31 am PDT by
Apple is preparing a "bold" new iPhone Pro model for the iPhone's 20th anniversary in 2027, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. As part of what's being described as a "major shake-up," Apple is said to be developing a design that makes more extensive use of glass – and this could point directly to the display itself. Here's the case for Apple releasing a truly all-screen iPhone with no...
maxresdefault

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Sunday April 13, 2025 7:52 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and ...
CarPlay Hero

Apple Releases Wireless CarPlay Fix

Wednesday April 16, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
If you have been experiencing issues with wireless CarPlay in your vehicle lately, it was likely due to a software bug that has now been fixed. Apple released iOS 18.4.1 today, and the update's release notes say it "addresses a rare issue that prevents wireless CarPlay connection in certain vehicles." If wireless CarPlay was acting up for you, updating your iPhone to iOS 18.4.1 should...
top stories 2025 04 19

Top Stories: iPhone 17 Pro Rumors, CarPlay Bug Fix, and More

Saturday April 19, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
This week saw rumor updates on the iPhone 17 Pro and next-generation Vision Pro, while a minor iOS 18.4.1 update delivered not just security fixes but also a fix for some CarPlay issues. We also looked ahead at what else is in Apple's pipeline for the rest of 2025 and even the 20th-anniversary iPhone coming in 2027, so read on below for all the details on these stories and more! iPhone 17 ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.5 Includes Only a Few Changes So Far

Monday April 21, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 18.5 to developers today, and so far the software update includes only a few minor changes. The changes are in the Mail and Settings apps. In the Mail app, you can now easily turn off contact photos directly within the app, by tapping on the circle with three dots in the top-right corner. In the Settings app, AppleCare+ coverage information is more...