This Story Posted:
February 17th

 
 

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[1:10 PM]
Apple, Sony, Phillips, Others Band Together On FireWire Patent Pool
Apple Computer, Inc., Compaq Computer Corporation, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic), Royal Philips Electronics, Sony Corporation and Toshiba Corporation have announced that they will work together to promote FireWire. According to a joint announcement from the companies:

"[The companies] announced their support of the high-speed IEEE1394 digital interface and their intention to form a patent pool to efficiently license patents required to implement the standard. The six companies will work together to create a joint licensing program and promote the industry-wide adoption of IEEE1394."

In the announcement Steve Jobs said:

"IEEE1394 is poised to become the most widely used industry standard to interconnect consumer electronics and personal computer devices. We want to pave the way for both the consumer electronics and the personal computer industries to adopt this powerful digital interface."

The companies involved did not divulge the terms of the agreement.

The Mac Observer Spin: Above and beyond the boost to FireWire this announcement means, the truly important news here is that Apple has formed an alliance with the heaviest hitters in the electronics world. Sony, Phillips and Matsushita alone account for an enormous market share in this market. By making this deal with these companies Apple is saying to the world that they too are in this league. Apple is one of the most widely known brands in the world, but this arrangement is an important image boost for the company.

Remember that Steve Jobs has gone on record as saying he wants for Apple to be the Sony of the computer world. What better way to do so than to ally with Sony on an important technology such as FireWire.

<speculation>Our guess is that the behind the scenes issues arranged in this agreement will pave the way for industry acceptance of the licensing fees recently announced by Apple. The companies involved, for instance, will probably not have to pay that fee, yet their embrace of the FireWire standard will make FireWire so ubiquitous that every other company will have no choice but to embrace the standard and therefore license the technology from Apple.</speculation>

The end result no matter how you slice it is increased revenue for Apple, and more market share for the Mac (after everything is said and done).

Congratulations Apple!

Apple