New Details About Lumafusion for Chrome OS
Coming Soon: Professional Video Editing on Chromebooks
The release of the professional video editing software Lumafusion is getting closer. A version of the successful iPad software for Android tablets and Chromebooks can be expected in the first half of 2022.
The lack of a professional video editing solution is one of Chromebooks’ most frequently cited weaknesses. Last fall, however, software developer Luma Touch promised a remedy and announced the porting of its successful video editing software Lumafusion for Android and Chrome OS at the “Android Developer Summit.” On the occasion of the presentation of the new high-end tablet series Galaxy Tab S8 during Samsung’s “Galaxy Unpacked” keynote, Luma Touch now specified its plans.
Accordingly, Lumafusion is in an early beta version that is only available to selected testers so far. Since the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 would be one of the most powerful Android tablets, a Lumafusion version for this device is already certain — although Luma Touch named no exact release dates yet.
Release in the first half of 2022?
In a press release, Samsung itself got much more specific and announced that Lumafusion for Android would reach its Galaxy Store during the first half of 2022. After all, a professional video editor would be a strong selling point for the newly announced Samsung tablets to put them on par with Apple’s iPad Pro.
The prerequisite for use would be Android 11 or higher — which currently also finds its way onto many Chromebooks. Supported languages would include “Chinese Simplified, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and English.”
What Lumafusion’s requirements will be specifically for the underlying Chromebook hardware is currently still in the dark. However, I expect a Chromebook with an Intel Core-i processor of the tenth, eleventh or twelfth generation or a correspondingly potent ARM SoC (like the new Kompanio 1380 from Mediatek) will be necessary for a smooth working flow with the Android app.
Neither Luma Touch nor Samsung revealed when Lumafusion for Android would reach the general Google Play Store and thus also the Chromebook. However, I expect a release soon after the Galaxy Store. Of course, it could be that Luma Touch has entered into special contracts with Samsung, which could prefer the Korean giant for some time. Luma Touch itself speaks of a “wonderful partnership” in a press release.
Possible limitations on Android and Chrome OS
Luma Touch also announced that in terms of performance, some limitations of the Android and Chrome OS variants of Lumafusion compared to the iPad version are to be expected — depending on the underlying hardware. Specifically, the Utah-based company cited frame rates, number of tracks, and support for various media formats. In addition, the currently developed version for Android would be based on version 2.4 for the iPad until Lumafusion would catch up to the current version 3.0 for iPadOS.
There are no concrete statements yet on the expected purchase price for Lumafusion for Android tablets and Chromebooks. However, this is likely to be based on the pricing for the iPad variant, which is currently just under $30.
