The $1 a port thing, however. I forgot about that. Insane.
That was one of the dumbest things Jobs did.
The decision to charge a licensing fee for FireWire ports is attributed to Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO at the time. This decision was made in the late 1990s as Apple sought to generate more income amidst its financial struggles.
Jobs reportedly authorized the change after learning of IBM's substantial patent revenue. Initially, Apple proposed a $1 per-port licensing fee. However, this decision faced strong opposition from industry partners like Intel, which subsequently redirected its support towards the rival USB 2.0 standard. Ultimately, Apple reduced the fee to 25 cents per system. However, the initial friction caused by the licensing fee played a role in FireWire's eventual decline in market adoption.
IBM still was riding on their own coattails at the time and could get away with doing stupid stuff like bending their customers over the cashwrap and taking every cent they had.
Just think if they'd done, say $0.02 per port with a maximum of $0.10. They'd be raking in billions today. Perhaps...the market is really sensitive to that at the chip level. Who knows.