Thu
Oct 16
12:52pm
I understand why Apple dropped FireWire from the MacBook
Yesterday I tweeted that I thought dropping the FireWire port from the new MacBooks was an odd decision by Apple. I dabble with SD and HD video, and to my knowledge the only way to get content from video cameras to laptops is via the FireWire port, so I couldn’t understand why Apple would drop the FireWire.
A quick conversation with the staff in Michael’s Camera and Video changed that. They told me that SD and HD camcorders that record to tape require FireWire, but camcorders that record to hard disk use USB.
Aha.
I don’t have any stats to back this up, but I’d hazard a guess that the majority of camcorders sold to consumers are hard disk, not tape. Pros use tape because it’s higher quality, but consumers aren’t so fussy about quality, they just want convenience.
The MacBook market is consumers. Ergo, they don’t need a FireWire port.
The MacBook Pro market is pros. They do.
Voila.
Unfortunately, anyone who wants high quality video and can put up with slower processing times on cheaper laptops like the MacBook no longer have an option. We probably fall into the “prosumer” segment, but this decision by Apple puts paid to that. We have to buy the MacBook Pro.
(Note: there are other reasons for requiring a FireWire port, e.g. external devices and Target Disk Mode, but none of them impact me so I can’t comment on them)
I thought I read somewhere that Apple may bring out an adapter that you can just stick into one of the other ports anyway.
Not sure on this, as your reasoning makes sense.
Just another demonstration as to Apple’s ability to make the more unpopular decisions and still wear them on their products successfully!
Comment by sim — October 16, 2008 @ 2:15 pm