Is FireWire Becoming A Niche Technology?

How often do you use the FireWire port on your PC? Maybe it would be better to ask if you even have a FireWire port. There's a decent chance that you have a FireWire port on your computer, especially if it is a Mac. But the popular port is slowly losing popularity.

It's no secret that FireWire never became as popular as USB, not by a long shot. One of the biggest reasons for this is that the FireWire IP owners demand royalties from manufacturers for every PC that contains one of their ports. When it made its debut they charged $1 per PC, though it eventually dropped to $.25 per computer.

The most popular use for the standard these days is for downloading video off of camcorders. But even that is beginning to decline, in 2005 85% of all camcorders contained a FireWire port, last year only 77% did. Could we see FireWire burn out in the next couple of years? There's a good chance.

FireWire Relegated to Niche Interface by USB 2.0 [via everythingusb]