Apple takes a step away from FireWire

With the latest crop of iPods, Apple is no longer including a FireWire cable in the box. The music players will still work with FireWire, if a cord is purchased separately, but only a USB 2.0 cable comes with the device. The move is part of a gradual shift on Apple’s part to standardize the iPod on USB, which is far more common in the Windows world.
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Nonetheless, some Mac owners were rankled by the move, saying that as recently as a year or two ago many Macs didn’t include a USB 2.0 port. As of Wednesday night, more than 1,300 people had signed an online petition calling on Apple to again include a FireWire cable with iPods.

Please. Would you like some cheese with your whine?

It is very hard for me to sympathize with the signatories to that petition for several reasons:

The first reason is the cost factor. The FireWire cable is relatively cheap at a mere $20, especially considering the affected consumer has just spent at least $200 on a portable music player.

The second reason is more complex. The Mac faithful is just that: faithful. Mac fans are, in general, a lot more forgiving with Apple than PC fans are with, say, Microsoft. When a company enjoys the kind of rabid following Apple does, you bet they are going to take advantage of that. Apple knows they can make this move, because they know there’s going to be an outcry on day 1, but by the end of week 1, everyone will forget about it, bite the bullet and buy the cable.

Third, Apple has always done things like this, and they always favor the majority of people who buy their products. Witness the Apple Cinema Displays with ADC cables that ensured they only worked on Powermacs. The only difference this time is the majority of iPod buyers are PC users. Apple knows this.

This is business. Apple made a business decision. There is no way an online petition is going to change Apple’s mind.