“The joke goes: if there is a universal standard Apple will find a way to make it proprietary,” Gordon Kelly writes for Forbes. “Well now it seems not even USB is safe and Apple appears ready to forge ahead with its own version of the technology. Starting with cables supplied with the upcoming iPhone 6.”
“There is Apple logic to this and my theory goes like this: Back in June Apple submitted a new specification to its MFi (Made For) licensing program for headphones to use the Lightning port instead of the standard 3.5mm jack,” Kelly writes. “If it proves popular Apple will be able to phase out the 3.5mm jack so iPhones and iPads need just a single port and in conjunction with this move and the redesign of USB Apple will control both ends of the cable and subsequently two sets of licensing fees.”
Much more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple may soon ship new Lightning cable with reversible USB connector – August 15, 2014
Why the security of USB is fundamentally broken and cannot be fixed – July 31, 2014
iDevices will NEVER have only one connector IF that connector is needed for the headphones. It would mean that you couldn’t listen to music with headphones AND charge the device at the same time. They might put TWO connectors in (since they have 2 connectors now anyway) because the Thunderbolt connector is thinner than the 3.5mm headphones connector, so they could make devices even thinner if this connector wasn’t necessary. But only one connector? Ain’t gonna happen…
It’s Apple, macman. Never say never.
yeah would be sad but not entirely impossible they would take that decision.
Apple could split off a headphone connection/port from the Lightning plug.
I don’t think I’ve ever listened to my iPhone using headphones while charging.
I have – on a plane when the battery is low.
I have, using Bluetooth headphones. I have even plugged in my phone in my bedroom and used them to talk and not have to be tied down to wherever my phone was plugged in.
I do frequently, to add the other side of the coin, and would be mildly annoyed if I no longer could.
However, 95% of the time now I use Bluetooth headphones, so it’s less if an issue than say, 5 years ago. That’s probably their logic if they do it.
In fact, I see them eventually eliminating BOTH the charging and headphone ports.
May be right… but if thinnness was all that they cared about… why wouldn’t they just switch to 2.5mm audio connectors.
There’s something else there. As for Reversible USB, this article is total junk… it’s NOT Apple proprietary… it’s part of the USB 3.1 spec.
Why would you need two connectors, when the phone recharges itself with the built in solar panel?? 😉
If the all new iPhone 6 – happens to have inductive charging as a standard – then there is no need for TWO connector ports as “macman1984” seems worried about. Now rethink your positioning statement please.
Inductive charging – might also be the obvious proof as to what iPhone 6 / 6s prototypes are fake. As well further explain why the part lines on the back of the phone are wider, not just due to antenna allowances.
Apple will never do inductive charging, as it requires a ridiculous charging pad, negating the benefit of “wireless” altogether.
Magnetic resonance is the right way to do this.
No, the joke doesn’t go like that. I’ve never heard a joke remotely like that.
I just don’t understand why tech writers or analysts attribute malice or greed to Apple when the most likely explanation is that the new dingus-whatever is better.
The joke was about Microsoft, not Apple.
Yeah, the only joke here is the Forbes writer, who competes with dumb for dumber. Seriously, a company with Apple’s numbers concerned about cable licensing fees? It’s all about standards – you know, “it just works”. The user experience is always first and foremost at Apple, a pretty simple concept really…
I like the concept of reversible USB, goes right along with the lighting connector.
Bastards!
Typical Forbes bullshit.
Apple’s only proprietary connectors have been the 32-pin and lightning connectors, because they’re device specific.
Any connector or cables that connect to a machine are either licenced or open source.
It was Apple, after all, who were first to adopt USB as the preferred connector long before anyone else did.
Apple developed FireWire, IIRC, and offered it up to other manufacturers, but most stuck with USB.
Hell, even Apple Lossless is an open-source format now.
Right, having read through the article again, a bit more carefully, they’re saying that Apple have made a cable that will work with the current main USB port, but be reversible, and should work with future implementations of that size port.
That’s hardly coming up with a ‘proprietory’ format, just fixing a really annoying problem; given a 50:50 chance of getting a USB plug the wrong way round, I get it wrong 90% of the time!
I think that Phasmainmachina is right: Apple is making a cable that will work with the CURRENT USB port and also be reversible. Everyone will want that. But the author has not grasped this. He think that they are designing a new port and a new, proprietary, Type A Plug. That’s not what they are doing. So the whole article is, well, off target.
Quoting from the article where it is circled in red: “Embodiments (of this patent) can provide… dual orientation USB plug connectors for mating with standard USB receptacle connectors, e. g. a standard Type A USB receptacle connector.” In other words, the new design will fit your current computer and work either right-side-up or bottom-side-up.
If you look in to the USB receptacle connector in your laptop, you picture how the reversible plug connector would work.
If this interpretation is correct then everything in the article about Apple creating a new proprietary standard is wrong.
Looks like a really neat step in the right direction. And all the stuff about upcoming USB standards looks great too! Charging your LAPTOP from a USB cable! COOL!