ZDNet blog thinks Macintels will drop FireWire

MacRumors reported on a ZDNet post yesterday that thinks the Macintel iBooks, whenever they arrive, will drop FireWire support altogether. The post's author, Jason D. O'Grady, also says that a little bird told him that PowerBooks are going to drop FW400, but retain FW800 as "a concession" to video professionals.

Now I am neither a high-paid industry analyst, nor do I have little birds whispering in my ear, but to a lowly video student and Apple enthusiast such as myself, this sounds like a rumor that went just a tad over the top. Jason cites the lack of FireWire support on the latest iPods to spark off his post, but I think that decision was based on factors very irrelevant to FireWire and its intended uses. FireWire is a fantastic protocol, meant for more intense operations like video editing throughput and OS booting – two significant things that USB is all but useless at. iBooks may be Apple's "low end" portable line (I use quotes because they still rock the house), but there are plenty of video editors cranking out great work with them. Let's also not forget that the rest of the PC industry as of late has finally caught up to FireWire; it seems nearly ubiquitous on most of their hardware now.

I guess at the end of the day, I really hope Jason missed the mark, or that the bird whispering in his ear simply needs to lay off the sauce. FireWire has a number of essential uses, and it's a necessary standard in a lot of industries – just not with certain white music players that transfer a few songs from time to time. Enough with my rant though, what do you guys think: would, or should, Apple truly ditch their beloved FireWire?