Apple once defined personal video creation. iMovie turned home movies into art, and Final Cut Pro earned a cult following among indie filmmakers. Apple’s own line says it best: "Give people wonderful tools, and they'll do wonderful things." In 2025, that promise feels muted. The creator economy is short‑form, mobile‑first, and AI‑assisted. Apple’s media software still serves billions of everyday users, but it no longer feels like the place where the next generation wants to start.

ByteDance and CapCut’s Advantage

An aspiring creator is more likely to open CapCut than iMovie. That is not a fluke. CapCut is free, vertical‑first, fast, and tied directly into distribution. The TikTok badge on CapCut edits is a quiet moat. Editing becomes marketing. Creation becomes distribution. ByteDance owns that loop.

Apple cannot and should not replicate TikTok’s walled garden. It can be the neutral platform that equips everyone to create for any destination with privacy, speed, and taste. That is Apple’s lane.

What Happened to iMovie

iMovie still works. It is the most approachable editor on earth and it ships on devices used by billions. That scale is why Apple has been cautious. Changing a default tool at that size carries risk.

But the landscape changed. Native vertical presets are table stakes. Template‑driven editing matters. AI‑assisted captions and quick reframes save time. Cross‑device cloud projects are expected. If iMovie keeps serving the home‑movie use case while ignoring modern social workflows, new creators will keep skipping it.

Final Cut remains blisteringly fast on Apple Silicon, but solo speed is no longer enough. Collaboration, effortless captions, smart reframes, and simple interchange are now part of the definition of “pro.” If those are clunky, pros and prosumers drift to Davinci and Premiere.

Clips: Right Instinct, Wrong Execution

Clips had the right idea years before the current boom. Introduced back in 2017, it brought live captions, playful effects, and vertical by default. It never escaped its own silo. It should have either become iMovie’s social mode or been folded into it with urgency.

Why This Matters for Apple’s Business

Creators drive culture and influence hardware choice. Better tools increase Services revenue. Think iCloud upgrades for heavy video libraries, Apple Music integrations for licensed sounds, and a paid marketplace for templates and effects. If CapCut owns the creative flow, Apple leaves money and mindshare on the table.

This is not existential for Apple the way it is for ByteDance. Creation tools are ByteDance’s core business. For Apple, they are one of many. The goal is not to win at all costs. The goal is to make focused upgrades that win share and rekindle loyalty.

The Two Tracks For Success

Apple can modernize without breaking what works.

Horizontal track: Keep iMovie’s classic timeline for family videos, school projects, and simple edits. Preserve the muscle memory billions already have.

Vertical track: Add a social mode inside iMovie. Vertical canvas by default. One‑tap captions. Beat‑synced templates. Smart reframes. Direct handoff to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. No gimmicks. Just speed and taste.

Position Apple as the impartial platform. Create anywhere. Publish everywhere. Private by design.

Partner With Editors, Not Just Enable Them

A vibrant editing community already sets trends on TikTok. Feature them. Pay for template packs. Curate a rotating gallery inside iMovie and Final Cut. Treat it like a mini App Store with revenue sharing. Templates are training wheels and creative sparks. They reduce time to first publish. They keep people inside the tool.

How Apple Wins From Here

ByteDance will likely keep the best tools for TikTok. That is fine. Apple wins by making vertical and social formats first‑class, with one‑tap export per platform. It should bring on‑device AI to the front for captions, highlight reels, reframes, and silence removal.

Projects need to be truly cross‑device so work moves from iPhone to iPad to Mac without friction. Collaboration should feel native to iCloud and FaceTime. And the product should nurture a community‑driven template and asset economy with clear incentives for creators.

This is Apple’s stated strength: "Apple lives in the intersection of liberal arts and technology" and "Apple is best when hardware, software, and services work together seamlessly." This can still remain true for Apple and its users. Apple only needs to be great enough, fast enough, and opinionated enough to matter again. Do that, and new creators will start with Apple instead of skipping it.

Whoever shapes the edit shapes the era.