Is there any reason why less systems are coming with expresscard slots and firewire?

I have realized a trend with some 15 inch notebooks upon reading the new Dell XPS 15 review that it seemed to have no expresscardslot and no firewire port. Now I can live with no firewire port as my n61 does not have one, but the expresscard slot still allows me to put the firewire attachment and capture video from my camera to the computer easily.

I may have to be cautious with my next laptop upgrade if this is the trend but does anyone have any ideas why it seems that these laptops are become more and more....narrowed in external functionality?

 

My guess would be - to save costs from stuff statistically less people use...

To be honest - I have been having firewire for 5 years now - not once have I used it - my previous laptop died with a virgin firewire port! ) I know it has its advantages, but I simply have no hardware that works on firewire. I use an external harddrive and I know I would have faster transfer rates over firewire... but the Firewire cases for external drives are more expensive and the choice is very limited!

Expresscard - the only thing I have is a 4x USB hub - express card. I have used it couple of times, but nothing I can't live without! I agree expresscard is still handy though.

But if I could choose - I'd rather have 2 additional USB ports instead of firewire and express-card slot.

Statistically - how many people do you think use those 2 connectivity options and how often....

I also find it crappy that new laptops no longer have S-Video out... I could have used one. But I realize people do use HDMI nowadays and that's evolution.

 

The only thing I use expresscard for is firewire...

I know firewire is phased out or getting that way, but I'm not so sure about expresscard.

 

The main thing I used to use my express card slot for was to hide a remote.

but since hardly any laptops come with infrared ports these days.....

I wonder what is next. Maybe bluetooth? I thought bluetooth would be safe with all the smartphones around these days. But it seems 99% of the people use the usb cable to connect since it charges the phone at the same time.

 

Don't say that - I use the bluetooth pretty often. Even if my phone did charge over USB which it doesn't, bluetooth is still much more handy to transfer data over, without using another usb port and carrying a cable with you everywhere.

 

There are very few things you can buy that use firewire anymore.

 

eSATA is the best option, then USB 3.0. Firewire should be better than USB 2.0 but in the real world it is not always.

I won't buy a laptop w/o Expresscard. I don't care about Firewire.

 

Interesting there are so many expresscard topics discussed today.

Anyway, it is because people have known that the majority of users don't use it at all. It is a waste of space. They can use the space instead for other things. Further, USB3.0 will rival the latest expresscard standard being proposed at the time. And most important of all however is:

Official Home Page for ExpressCard Technology from PCMCIA

... that they are closing shop as a standard because they too realize there is no point and no market for pursuing a clunkly standard where others can do better.

 

Smellycant,

Wow, that is some news you linked to!

I will make a point to not buy ExpressCard tech going forward (I haven't for 3 years already...) - Thanks!

+Rep

 

It doesn't take much space (and I am aware about the internal space it takes and all).

USB 3 is still not going to match it for video cards.

The standard itself was not dropped. It changed hands.

 

Yea tiller, I am glad they are phasing them out TBH. One of the last PCMCIA device I was using was for an ethernet modem I got back when ADSL was a new thing.

Dragonrage, I guess discussing something neither of us have any power to change is pointless. Its like the other older thread where people argued whether expresscard was useful for the future, only to later be revealed that PCMCIA is set to close down later and notebook manufacturers stopped standardizing it on their products.

I guess we will let the industry decide and for innovators to invent. WHo knows, maybe someone will release something capable for external video docking via USB3 or eSata or lightpeak.

The standard is obviously not dropped. This can only happen if manufacturers stopped supplying products with them. This seems to be the trend now as they realize the cost/benefits of expresscards. No amount of arguign will change this, the train has already left the station on that. Soon we won't find any new notebooks with it, even as you protest along. However, PCMCIA branded expresscard is officially over. That means no Expresscard 2.0 like they were advertising in the past. This is obvious because USB3.0 defeats it and manufacturers dont want to adopt the useless alternative. So in that sense, expresscard is over. There is likely no more future developments in this front for this standard.

 

Stop making stuff up and quit the theatrics.

It simply got superseded by USB 3.0.

 

Making stuff up? No. Theatrics? Just telling it like it is.

Now that this is becomming fact, it is easier to make people swallow the idea USB 3.0 will beat expresscard. Prior to this being true, and we are talking about a year or more ago, the fanboys with their collection of expresscard devices hated the idea that their investments will be useless in the future. Another i told you so for the technology buffs I guess.

 

Oh please. You are the one making up some fantasy about how the two standards fought to the death and USB 3.0 slew the evil Expresscard dragon. In reality the members of both organizations are the SAME companies. Expresscard served its purpose as a high bandwidth external interface. Expresscard for bandwidth, USB 2.0 for simplicity. With USB 3.0, it comes close to even Expresscard 2.0 speeds. It is also simpler. So since USB 3.0 has the simplicity of USB with bandwidth of Expresscard, it doesn't make much sense to continue on with both standards.

You are so full of yourself. A "technology buff" such as yourself rolleyes should be able to realize that standards get superseded and obsoleted all the time.

 

Quite the wanabe know-it-all? Why dont you let us in on more of what else you might know in life. But let me see how this works: ok so I add a few obvious facts everyone knows but that I assume only I am privy to onto every post and I may come off smarter, then point out something irrelavent to disagree with. OK Let me try. 1+1=2. 10*2=20. F=ma. And... oh..... obviously both organizations are not precisely the SAME! Oh, Roll Eyes.[/rhetoric and sarcasm]. Seriously.

Where do you figure that I think USB and expresscard are separate entities fighting to death till the bitter end? All my comments have been directed and referred toward the adoption of the standard into notebooks where space is valuable. Further I have been pointing to past flaws in beliefs held by people about the importance expresscard had to the future (at the time, which is by now proven to be useless with less manufacturers adopting it).

Wow, now thanks for that info about technology becomming obsolete. Even though I have been saying it in prior posts, I really had no idea. You are indeed quite smart and knowledgable. Hope this reply keeps your adrenaline high going after your previous comeback made you feeling so smart and superior.

 

Too many internet egos. The comment about this being 'hardly news' was just so meaningful, afterall, I suppose I have been claiming novelty to this news from the beginning right? Oh no I havent.

I did not misinterpret the situation. I have already said in prior, as laymens, we can only let the industry decide what to adopt on the products. Certainly, the direction most manufacturers are taking is to not include expresscards on their products, if that is any indication.

There was the hype about expresscard 2.0 a year ago. There is little talk about that now. In fact I don't think we will be seeing it. The mainstream will likely be USB3 for most notebooks in most manufacturers. That is my prediction.

 

OK, enough of that. Stay on topic without condescending to one another.

Any more posts along those lines will simply be deleted.

 

Well then we shall see as all we can do right now is speculate.

The current trend however is quite clear. Apple seems to be dropping expresscard in most of their notebooks. Most sony notebooks don't have them to begin with. I hear dell is doing the same. Lenovo shifted from having two slots (1x expresscard 54 and 1x pc card) to only 1x expresscard 34 on their large notebooks. Etc. The trend seems pretty clear.

Further, when you look at the specs for the EC 2.0 vs USB 3.0, it seems given all factors, the USB 3.0 is the more obvious choice, making EC2.0 obsolete. Then you look at the known milestones by manufacturers. USB 3.0 is on the table, while EC2.0 is noweher to be seen or mentioned. Surely consumer demand for it is low too, as it has historically been in the past for all similar expresscard products. If in the future by the time EC2.0 or better EC standards are proposed that may defeat what other USB based options are potentially available, lightpeak might arrive to the scene.

Given the grand scheme of things, I dont see EC being a very viable option for manufacturers to implement into their notebooks.

 

On the topic.
There is not too much reason to add any other port then usb2-3 .. it does everything.
Maybe 1% of the users use firewire or expresscard.

 

Unless we go model to model from every manufacturer we can only make generic statements. Most toshibas seem to have dropped it. About sony, there are a few models from Sony without expresscard in any form. Otherwise it will be the smaller EC34. In fact to the contrary to your statement, for sony, the ones that do not have EC, are larger than 12" notebooks actually.

The point is, most manufacturers have scaled back from the larger L shaped EC54 to the smaller EC34 if they even have it, while others have chosen to drop them completely even on larger formfactor notebooks. This shows the trend manufacturers are taking. Although no market reserach I am aware of, I think it is quite reflective of the consumer market from what I have observed I might add, because it doesnt seem many people use the EC, and is very niche. That extra space certainly can be put to better use or for weight and volume saving purposes.

Just because it has the PCIe2.0 doesnt mean it has to impliment ECs. THere are many capabilities in general from many OEM products that notebook manufacturers do not implement. E.g. ATA security measures are not implimented on all notebooks even though it can. Plus, PCIe can be used for other purposes, for example there is talk about a low cost implementation for hybrid SSD & mechanical HDD on notebooks where an SSD can be interfaced on the PCIe slot and a standard HDD can be used for data storage on most notebooks, so people get the benefits without having to invest on still premium SATA SSDs. There are many uses, maybe for integrated WWAN or WiMAX cards, etc.

 

USB 3 is faster than the last gen Expresscard and as fast as the latest SB Expresscard. So why bother with the form factor of Expresscard?

Firewire was always a "barely hanging on" standard. USB 3 being faster and more universal pretty much sealed the doom on Firewire as well.

 

I am having trouble finding a Sandy Bridge system with ExpressCard.
I need one to support my ViDock.

The Sager/Clevo does not have it.
ASUS N53SV does not have it.
The new HP Pavilion does not have it either.
There are conflicting reports about whether MSI GT680/GX680 has it or not.
Not sure about Dell but judging from the new XPS lineup introduced two months ago, it will not feature ExpressCard either.

It seems to me that there is an industry trend to get rid of ExpressCard, and that is bad for me.
Maybe manufacturers believe ExpressCard is a niche market, maybe they see devices like ViDock as a threat so they want to shut down external upgrade paths.
For the same amount of space I would much rather have an ExpressCard 34 than a 5-1 media reader (which could be easily replaced by a $5 USB device)
Of course a 54 slot would be even better.