An in-depth look at the design of the MacBook suggests that Apple simply might not have had room for a FireWire port. Apple takes its hardware design very seriously, and it’s very likely that in attempting to achieve certain design criteria, compromises had to be made.
Gizmodo reports:
“The unibody construction, along with the decision to make the hard drive and battery easily accessible essentially determined the rest of the internal layout, and you wind up with motherboard that doesn’t span the length of the notebook. So, all of the ports have to go on one side, and the limited space means you get three.”
You can check out the full analysis over here.
October 29th, 2008 at 6:20 am
I’m not convinced by Gizmodo’s argument because the width and depth of the previous MacBook was about the same. In fact, at just 114 square inches, it was a little tiny bit smaller than the new model.
MacBook (Early 2008):
Width: 12.78 inches
Depth: 8.92 inches
MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008):
Width: 12.78 inches
Depth: 8.94 inches
See: http://support.apple.com/specs/#macbook/
On the old model, the hard drive and the battery were already accessible and the internal layout was identical: hard drive and battery compartment in the same position. The logic board didn’t span the length of the notebook, etc. All the ports had to go on one side. Yet, it had a FireWire port.
Teardown of the old MacBook, see Step 12:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/MacBook-Core-2-Duo/Airport-Card/116/10/Page-4#s2442
Internals, old MacBook:
http://static4.ifixit.com/igi/1NGrYHwrUGqEvy6d.large
Internals, new MacBook:
http://static4.ifixit.com/igi/qFsHP2uMXoMCagVy.large