Steve Jobs Responds to Fire Storm over FireWire

by , 12:20 PM EDT, October 17th, 2008

On Tuesday, Apple released new aluminum MacBooks without a FireWire port of any kind, some customers have been greatly annoyed, and they let Apple know about it on Apple forums. Steve Jobs has responded to one customer via e-mail, according to AppleInsider.

In his first response to an Apple customer, Mr. Jobs said, "Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2."

Not completely satisfied with the response, the customer, "David," inquired about the fact that modern HD camcorders with USB2 are just too expensive. David wondered why customers shouldn't be able to edit SD movies with an older, less expensive SD camcorder. Mr. Jobs' reply was:

"The new HD camcorders start around $500."

Apple customers shouldn't be too surprised by this Apple move. FireWire 400 is long in the tooth and has remained in the Apple technology portfolio for a long time. With Wireless technologies taking over and USB 3 on the horizon, Apple likely felt that it was time to move on. That's Apple mantra: move on, leave the past behind.

When Apple dropped the 1.44 MB floppy from the original iMac, it took the PC industry another 5 years to do the same. However, Apple just isn't the kind of company to tie itself to the past for the sake of compatibility for long periods of time. In the end, experience has proven that we all move on with Apple and, later, wonder what the fuss was about.