Jobs responds to no FireWire on MacBooks

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has purportedly responded in a typically brief way to a customer complaint about Apple abandoning FireWire on its new MacBook line. The email communications between Jobs and a customer who wrote to complain, reported by AppleInsider, show Jobs' thought process, looking forward with few FireWire ported High-Definition camcorders coming to market. The approach ignores a heavily established base of FireWire-based camcorders and other devices that depend on the high-speed, low latency aspects of the connector.

The original email, from a customer identified by AppleInsider as "David," complains that he cannot recommend the new MacBooks to friends due to the lack of a FireWire port, because he can no longer "easily connect your digital camcorder and edit [his] own movies." Jobs response appears to have been "Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2."

FireWire was originally positioned as a high-speed port, with USB 1.1 positioned as a low-speed port for items like keyboards and mice. USB 2.0, with its faster speeds, has pushed FireWire out of the picture for the most part in the Windows PC sector. USB 2.0's theoretical speed of 480Mb/ses gave the appearance of higher speeds than FireWire's 400Mb/sec, despite FireWire's real-world higher speeds due to its serial-based connection standard. FireWire gives consistent speeds, unaffected by processor performance, where USB 2.0 can put a tax on the processor and be limited by it at the same time.

The ubiquitous nature of USB 2.0 has pushed FireWire into a niche market, and the emerging e-SATA connection protocol is pushing FireWire further from the limelight. The connection is still viable, if not required, for a large portion of the installed camcorder-based market, as well as in the music industry and professional photography markets.

Customers who want the newly-announced MacBook to edit home movies, the average customer that Apple gears iLife toward, are left to consider a new camcorder as part of the expense, or worse for Apple, to consider a PC alternative, as Sony and Dell offer FireWire ports on their lower-priced notebooks as options. And the MacBooks lack an ExpressCard adapter that would be the primary viable means of adding FireWire to the new notebooks.

Many professional media creators, videographers, photographers, musicians and others were hoping the MacBook would be positioned to replace the PowerBook G4 12-inch models they coveted for extreme portability. The lack of a FireWire port has diminished their enthusiasm for the new MacBooks, just when the processor, video card and rugged design made a MacBook a small-sized, portable alternative to carrying a larger MacBook Pro.

Jobs ability to predict the future has been more successful than not, but he may have jumped to soon this time. Removing FireWire from a laptop that holds such appeal to a large base of home video enthusiasts and professionals looking for a workhorse, highly portable Mac laptop could limit its success, despite early strong sales.

Filed under: Apple
Other story tags: MacBook, Steve Jobs, FireWire