Firewire was faster than USB 2.0, but lacked support by hardware manufacturers. If this wasn't the case, would USB 3.0 be different ?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 23 Jul 2016 22:29:22 -0400

Response by SSgt Mark Lines made Jul 24 at 2016 6:05 AM

SSgt Mark Lines — Sun, 24 Jul 2016 06:05:48 -0400

The main reason why USB 3 has been widely adopted is that its cable is backwards compatible.

Response by SN Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 25 at 2016 7:28 AM

SN Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 07:28:26 -0400

Firewire may have been faster, but it blatantly Apple. Required specialized hardware, didn't play nice with Windows, and was expensive. Not to mention, Firewire has a chained device limitation much lower than USB's 256 connected devices.

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 25 at 2016 9:09 AM

CW5 Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 09:09:33 -0400

So Apple has a long history in regards to international standards.
An early example was AppleTalk for their networking interface and protocol. It just didn't scale and was narrowminded in scope.
Firewire is just another example. If you're doing something revolutionary or non-universal then you're ok with a proprietary device, interface or protocol. A successful example is the lightning cable which only works on Apple devices. But counter to that is are Android devices which use USB....
Firewire and AppleTalk existed outside of just Apple devices and so they failed.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 25 at 2016 11:20 AM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 11:20:07 -0400

I think USB 3.0 would've came sooner had Firewire gotten more respect.