Market research firm In-Stat/MDR has published a new report entitled IEEE 1394: FireWire’s Spark Returns? (#IN030582MI). The report suggests that the IEEE 1394a and b standards, known to Mac users as FireWire and FireWire 800, are expected to see further penetration thanks to several parallel efforts.
The original 1394a standard is expected to see further adoption in the PC market thanks its integration into core logic chipsets developed by Silicon Integrated Systems and Nvidia Corp., according to In-Stat/MDR. What’s more the company anticipates that Apple’s early leadership with FireWire 800 systems will also lead to more 1394b-enabled peripherals — no surprise to MacCentral readers, surely, who have seen numerous FireWire 800-related announcements from Mac-friendly peripheral vendors since Apple’s introduction of the FireWire 800-equipped 17-inch PowerBook G4 this past January.
In-Stat/MDR senior analyst Brian O’Rourke explained that the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) is requiring that all 13-inch and larger TV sets be equipped with high-definition digital tuners by 2007. This is expected to drive FireWire adoption, as well.
“… the NCTA and the CEA agreed to mandate 1394 as one of the two digital interfaces between digital cable set top boxes and digital televisions,” said O’Rourke.
In-Stat/MDR found that FireWire-equipped laptop computers are the growth market for FireWire, while the company anticipates “modest” growth for the standard in consumer desktops and “close to non-existent” in commercial desktops. FireWire will also see increased growth in the PC peripheral market through external hard drive and recordable DVD drive sales, but In-Stat/MDR anticipates “negative” growth in printers and scanners, which have increasingly gone to the USB 2.0 standard.
Another potential market for FireWire is the automotive industry — In-Stat/MDR said that FireWire networks will appear as aftermarket options in the Japanese car industry over the next thee years, with factory-installed networks appearing in cars starting in 2006.
The US$3,495 report is available directly from In-Stat/MDR.