FireWire Relegated to Niche Interface by USB 2.0

A report came out recently from In-Stat that says USB 2.0 is relegating FireWire to a niche interface. It seems that in its heyday, FireWire only held a 33% share of the PC interface market. The main reasons for this are the high costs demanded in royalties from the FireWire IP owners in the form of $1.00 per port at launch, which dropped to $.25 per system later on. Traditionally FireWire has been strong in the camcorder market, but In-Stat claims that while in 2005 85% of camcorders shipped with Firewire, last year that slipped to only 77%. Perhaps, we will see the demise of FireWire in the coming years.