Even though Apple are enjoying a bit of a renaissance thanks to their new “Prodigy”, Mr Jobs, there is a new hypercard about to burst into flames, a $1 royalty per port for use of the FireWire interface.

The “IEEE1394” interface was conceived at Apple and called FireWire, is used in various camcorders; in PCs from Compaq, NEC and Sony; and in Apple’s latest G3 Macintosh computers. Under the Apple royalty plan, a three-port physical layer 1394 chip that sells for less than $5 would incur a $3 royalty charge. “You can’t have Apple make more money from a 1394 chip than the semiconductor maker does,” says a source who asked not to be named. “Eventually, Apple will have to realize this is just not going to happen.”

They did it with the iMac, so let’s see them “Smack some pc-itches up”.

http://www.apple.com/