The glory days for Apple's Academy Award winning FireWire (IEEE 1394) connectivity interface may be over, a report claims.
Research from In-Stat indicates that the standard faces major challenges and a stagnating marketshare. In terms of deployment, FireWire's peak year may be 2008, with decline setting in by the end of 2009, these analysts warn.
"1394 suffers from being the second-choice technology in many product segments," says Brian O'Rourke, In-Stat analyst. "For example, 1394's historic one-third penetration of the PC market is now dwarfed by high-speed USB's 100 per cent penetration. This has helped high-speed USB become the interface of choice for PC peripherals."
In-Stat research claims that shipments of FireWire-equipped devices will only grow by 0.2 per cent each year until 2011, and identified some moves away from the standard in the digital camcorder market: between 2005 to 2006, FireWire penetration of digital camcorders fell from 85 per cent to 77 per cent.
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