According to reports, Apple will add more USB 2.0 ports to its Mac line-ups along with the switch to the Intel architecture this year at the request of its customers. The company is however expected to keep at least one FireWire port on each of its MacTel products.

Last month, Jason D. O’Grady reported that Apple may be abandoning FireWire on its entry-level laptops in the near future. The news shocked the Mac community as Mac fans hardly believed this could be possible.

Commenting on O’Grady’s report, sources denied the recent rumours and said that the company will add more USB 2.0 ports to its Macs as it’s a major request from customers but it is also claimed that Apple won’t remove totally FireWire “from any existing product line”. We’ll let you draw your own conclusions on the use of the word “existing” in one of their comment.

O’Grady’s report is not totally inaccurate though, as sources do not exclude that Apple could reduce the number of FireWire ports on its Macs in favor of USB. As example, sources mentioned the possibility that the forthcoming PowerBooks include only one FireWire 800 port, confirming a point of O’Grady’s report.

Sources also mentioned the possibility that Apple provides an adaptor that splits a FireWire 800 port into two FireWire 400 ports and claim it is technically feasible. We could not verify if this “FireWire adaptor thing” is possible or not though. So if anyone of you can confirm this, please drop us a mail.

No details were provided on how many USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 or 800 ports Apple’s next generation Mac desktops and laptops will have.