your price is about the same in canada : must be the currency exchange from us$ to CDN$ albeit these days its close to being equal

when i asked my apple tech guy about the price difference between usb drives and firewire drives he noted as best as i understood that it's something to do about the power supply in a FireWire drive is more costly to manufacture because the drives in either unit cost the same also the shell is specially designed/manufactured in a firewire drive to dissipate the heat