August 22, 2001: Apple takes home a technical Emmy Award for developing FireWire, the high-speed serial port that allows users to transfer data quickly between a Macintosh and another device, such as a digital camera.
“Apple enabled the desktop video revolution with its invention of FireWire,” says Jon Rubinstein, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, in a press release about the Emmy win.
FireWire plays a key role in Apple CEO Steve Jobs‘ “digital hub” strategy for the company. However, the technology’s origins go back much further than that.
FireWire wins an Emmy for Apple
Apple engineers developed FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394) in 1986 to replace older technologies for interfacing between devices. They nicknamed it “FireWire” due to its impressive speed.
It wasn’t until Steve Jobs’ return to Apple in 1997 that FireWire became part of the Mac’s standard toolset. Jobs saw a use for it in moving video from cameras to computers, where the imagery could be easily edited and distributed.
Although developed while Jobs worked outside Apple, in a lot of ways, FireWire seems like a typically Jobsian invention. Its impressive capabilities and straightforward, plug-and-play nature made it a truly revolutionary technology. It boasted data-transfer rates up to 400Mbps — around 30 times the bandwidth of the popular USB peripheral standard.
A mass-market technology that finds a place in Hollywood
Due to its advantages, FireWire proved incredibly popular among users, from consumers to industry pros. It quickly became a standard interface, adopted by Sony, Canon, JVC and Kodak for cameras and digital peripherals.
Combined with tools like iMovie and iDVD — and new, low-cost/high-quality digital camcorders — FireWire helped spark a mobile video phenomenon. That, in turn, spurred the ascendance of services like YouTube. FireWire also kicked off Jobs’ strategy of referring to the Mac as a “digital hub” to connect all your devices for maximum creativity and productivity.
No wonder The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences gave Apple a Primetime Engineering Emmy Award for FireWire’s material impact on the television industry!
This was far from Apple’s last Emmy, though. Apple received its second Emmy for the 2013 iPhone ad “Misunderstood.” And these days, Apple makes winning Emmys and other awards a key part of its strategy for luring subscribers to Apple TV+. In 2025, Apple TV+ received a whopping 81 Emmy nominations.
Do you remember using FireWire for the first time? Leave your comments below.
