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ArsTechnica: "Report: FireWire doomed to niche interface status"

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Part of USB 2.0's success in supplanting FireWire as the high-speed connectivity interface of choice has to do with cost.

Initially, FireWire's IP owners demanded royalties of $1.00 per port (later dropped to 25¢ per system) from manufacturers, which turned some OEMs off. In contrast, Intel strongly backed USB 2.0 and quickly integrated support into its chipsets, where FireWire was usually available in PC systems only in the form of a PCI card add-on. As a result, FireWire's advantages over USB 2.0—like being able to support multiple hosts per bus and peer-to-peer device communication—were rendered irrelevant, and the interface is being relegated to niche status in the PC and peripheral market.

Seems like demanding (relatively) large royalties does not help to get a large market share and sustain it. On a slightly different topic, same can be said about adding DRM to one's products and preventing users from using what they have legally bought.