Study Reports 1394 Sales On The Upswing
By Staff -- TWICE, 9/2/2002
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — Consumer electronics products equipped with 1394 FireWire ports outsold similarly equipped PCs for the first time in 2001, according to a study from In-Stat/MDR.
The research firm found the number of 1394-equipped devices jumped by 33 percent to 46 million units in 2001 and In-Stat anticipates this trend will continue with sales increasing 21 percent in 2002. The growth will be spurred by more PCs featuring 1394 ports, sales of digital camcorders and the introduction of the interface technology into the automotive industry.
Despite this upbeat report, In-Stat pointed out that there are several problems that will slow 1394's market penetration, primarily the availability of USB 2.0 and the lack of applications outside of digital video that utilize 1394. USB 2.0 is almost as fast as 1394 and backward compatible with the installed base of USB 1.1 ports.
