FireWire is continuing to gain in popularity, and today we find evidence of that from hard drive giant Maxtor. The company introduced its own line of external FireWire hard drives last year, a segment of the market heretofore dominated almost exclusively by small and medium sized Mac-oriented companies. The company used the term "1394," short for IEEE 1394 which is the generic name of the technology. Apple brands 1394, a technology they invented, with the name "FireWire." In a conference call announcing their Q4 results, Maxtor specifically cited their new line of FireWire hard drives as having seen "good customer demand." According to a transcript of the conference call:
We also successfully introduced new products into the retail channel. In the fourth quarter, we saw good consumer demand for our recently-introduced 1394 External Storage device and related accessories, including PCI adapter cards. This product is targeted at individuals working with storage applications such as video editing, MP3 music downloads, and graphic design. Our 1394 product received very favorable reviews in PC World and MacWorld. It was also one of the three featured "Products to Watch" in the peripherals section of Fortuneis Tech Buyeris Guide in November. These new consumer products have enabled us to increase our shelf space at retailers such as Staples, CompUSA, Best Buy and Circuit City, helping us to continue to build the Maxtor brand name with consumers.
You can find more information in the transcript. Congratulations to Maxtor for making some money in the current market.