“Apple may have invented the USB Type-C connector and donated it to the USB 3.0 Promoter Group, reports Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber on ‘The Talk Show,'” Clarified reports.
Clarified reports, “Here’s what Gruber had to say about the port: ‘I have heard, I can’t say who but lets call them informed little birdies, that USB-C is an Apple invention and that they gave it to the standards bodies… and that the politics of such is that they can’t really say that. They’re not going to come out in public and say that but that they did. It is an Apple invention and they want it to become a standard.'”
What I’ve heard is that it’s an Apple invention that was sort of developed alongside Lightning and that they donated, they gave to the standards bodies because they want the industry standard to be thin enough for their devices and they want it to be reversible. — John Gruber
Full article, with the podcast embedded, here.
My understanding is they did the same thing with the technology that became “WiFi”. I was still living in the Bay Area just North of Silly Valley (Silicon Valley) when Apple requested the frequencies used for original 802.11 from the FCC.
Interesting. Any information for links to see that involvement with Apple?
Make sense to me. It is clearly a USB-type implementation of Lightning, whether Apple actually invented/donated the design, or not.
But if this is true, then why didn’t Apple go straight to USB-C for it’s iDevices, instead of the Lightning connector.
USB 3.1 with the USB-C connector seems to be a much better, more versatile standard than the Lighting connector.
Is there any advantage Lightning has over USB-C?
Not sure about that. Apple used Firewire and then Thunderbolt for a reason. I think the sustainable throughput was better on FW and now TB — better for applications like video editing, etc. (the peak might have been higher on USB2/3 than FW). You can run audio and video through USB, but it doesn’t seem to be professional quality, just highly compressed or lower resolution.
And FW and TB are truly serial — you can daisychain devices with throughput. I don’t think people normally daisy-chain USB devices, just branch off of hubs.
Lightening is much smaller than USB-C, that’s one advantage of it, there may be others as well. The connectors that get developed as “standards” without Apple are almost always horrible. Look how bad the connector is for USB. It’s one sided, very clunky and bulky, but at least it allows power. In fact it’s non reversible in the worst way possible, you can’t tell what side is which in the dark, as both sides have no shape differentiation. Still, It’s light years better than the ports it replaced. Look at the serial connectors in older Macs, or the old PC keyboard connectors! Yikes. Some if you unplugged or plugged them into a computer that was already turned on you risked damaging your computer!
The “mini USB” connector is complete garbage. It’s used on Android devices and many other things but it is really terrible. It is non reversible (why?), it’s small but it’s exceedingly fragile and clunky for such a small port. Compare that to Lightening, there’s a world of difference in what Apple develops.
Apple could not implement USB-C until the spec was completed.
Whatever the situation is, Apple did engage 18 of its engineers in USB consortium for USB-C connector.
If Apple had 18 people working on it, then it was an extremely important project for the company. Most Apple development teams are considerably smaller than that.
-jcr
It’ll take Dell a decade to get around to using it in their laptops.
And about a week more before they claim to be the originators of using USB-C ports in computers.
Actually, Microsoft will put it in Surface 8 and have a press conference saying “we’ve helped usher in a new era of mobile devices.”
I literally thought it was a joke when Steve Balmer said “Microsoft has helped usher in the mobile, post-PC era” in like 2012 or 2013. With what fucking products? Windows 8? What a mess, nobody wants to use Windows 8, 8.1, or 10 (oops they missed windows 9 because developers were too lazy and coded too many things to look for windows 95 and windows 98 by using “windows 9*”).
I did not know that’s why they are skipping version 9. Wow.
You really think Dell is going to be around that long?
No, but Dell will or is evolving into IBM-light.
The reality is that true heavy duty CPU tasks are already being used on many high end laptops. Desktops will survive, but I’ll bet most wind up being MacMini type machines.
The old high-end tower box workstations are in serious decline and I doubt they will survive in their current form. Apple has already tried the new cylindrical form factor and the USB-C connector will simplify connections on desktops, too.
I could even see a modular high end workstation being produced. You could buy individual CPU/RAM, SSD, Video, Audio, RAID modules and stack/plug them together.
Thus, people would buy what modules they need, plug them together. If you only wanted a server, you pick a couple modules.
The problem for PC makers is this: people who buy PC don’t want to spend ANY money on a PC. That’s why Dell use to be successful selling very inexpensive computers, initially geared toward college students. However, the technology has gotten to a point where a PC is good enough to get basic things done without replacing it, and they also last that long too. People will use their PC’s for 5 years or more, and then when they do need a new one, they’ll get one for $300 or less.
People who don’t mind investing in the latest technology will buy Apple for obvious reasons. And to those of us who do, we also don’t mind upgrading more frequently (such as every 2-3 years, or at least before the Apple Care expires). And the pro Apple users will upgrade to every model.
But for PC makers, their target market has run dry, and their target market doesn’t give a shit about name brand or spending a whole lot of money. PC users are the Android-settlers of desktop computing.
I think you got that wrong and the other way round.
The reason PC makers are slowly losing out is not slow replacement cycle. As a matter of fact, the cycle is much shorter with windows computers than with Macs. Vast majority of PCs out there are low-end sub- $400 machines, whose performance is borderline acceptable when they are first bought. As they accumulate malware gunk with average consumer use, they rapidly slow down to a crawl even before any OS update is performed. Unlike Winodows, Macs last 5′, 6 years, often longer, and still perform quite well.
The reason PC industry is suffering is the razor-thin profit margins and race to the bottom with pricing in order to beat the competitor. With nothing of value to differentiate themselves, PC makers can only compete on price. As the rapid advancement of processor speeds is now the thing of distant past, two-year replacement cycles are now ancient history. While the average replacement cycle of windows is still shorter than Mac, it has slowed enough to turn the growth curve upside down. Meanwhile, Mac replacement cycle, while rather long, remained steady, and the halo of all other Apple products continues to sustain a steady stream of switchers.
You think Too much like Dell yourself…It’s not just about form by a long shot, which is why “The old high-end tower box workstations are in serious decline”
Michael crossed Dell also though it was all about looks and boxing…
If you recall the original apple desktop bus, it was kind of a primitive usb because there was no need for parity, handshake, baud rats like the serial port in PCs, at least it was not necessary to do any kind of configuration, you just plug it and that’s it, like USB today.
Is this the end of MagSafe?
Magsafe reversible USB with power would have been awesome.
I agree. If Apple invented this variant of USB, why didn’t they donate MagSafe patents to the cause? Rather than just let MagSafe wither away.
If this is true, all the other PC manufacturers will suddenly lose interest in it and USB-C will fail. Seriously.
Does anyone remember Light Peak? The Intel/Apple project that was going to rival against USB 3.0. If I remember correctly ( and fill me in if I am missing information) Light Peak was marketed to obtain a 10 Gigabit/s transfer using optical technology. It was also suppose to be able to support using several devices on just one port, stuff like video, ethernet, external memory or graphic expansion. Sure enough, they optical cables never came, and only maintained the copper-based production of it, which were able to achieve the same 10 Gigabit/s speeds, but I believe due to the copper there was limitations. These have now turned into Lightning and Thunderbolt, I believe if Apple did develop USB Type-C, this was an alternative to the true realization of what Light Peak was intended for. It would make sense for Apple to do something like this, especially if they are trying to hit the masses, which means $$. I am not saying Apple is all about money; they strive for innovation and enrich lives. But if you think about it, if every company out there either has USB Type-C equipped products, or develops USB Type-C cables, Apple will get some sort of licensing payback for overtime that port is licensed out right? And Apple needs money if they want to make the world a better place.
I think Light Peak was announced prior to the technology being ready, just like with Sapphire screens for iPhones.
Optical communication cables will come for consumer products only when mass production techniques allow it at moderate cost. Some demo projects in universities have shown chip based optic circuits recently that might make the high speed communication possible.
Looks to me like Apple has some money. And since Apple is the first to market with USB-C, it looks like they’re going to be the first to make money with it. These days, everybody wants to connect to Apple’s products, so USB-C should catch on rather quickly. The Apple ecosystem is the 21st century analog to Windows. You’re either a part of it or you’re a niche player.
I heard Apple gave the spec to the committee so it’s open source but since the committee approved it others will use it.
Does anyone remember Light Peak?
Light Peak has shipped. We call it Thunderbolt now.
-jcr
You can buy Thunderbolt optical cables, BTW. http://www.corning.com/opcomm/OpticalCablesbyCorning/products/thunderbolt.aspx#.VQaY8S0vuRs
Most people don’t need 100 meters, so they don’t sell in very large quantities.
-jcr
I’m holding out for USB 4.
The real issue with USB-C is adoption. Since it is a new standard and their isn’t any peripherals yet, will it be another thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is awesome, but limited in adoption. You can count on both hand the number of available peripherals for thunderbolt. It’s been out like what, 3 years now? If people don’t make a lot of and compatible with, it will just be another Apple only limited type port.
Sorry guys…
Apple didn’t invent the USB-C connector… Far away from it. They participated with 18 engineers in the spec definitions. Many other companies participated in these specs (Including some names you would prefer to ignore):
To name only few:
– Google : 10
– Intel : 25
– Japan Aviation Electronics : 21
– Microsoft : 16
– Tyco Electronics : 19
Apple is not so much in “giving away” technologies it considers as having invented (Rounded corners someone???).
The only thing they did is being the first company to push it on a “grand publique” product (One good point for Apple here).
http://www.docdroid.net/uf3z/typec.pdf.html
Have fun with bashing.
You’re wrong. The truth is Apple invented substantial portions of USB-C, in collaboration with other companies. So the more correct statement is that Apple and the other companies involved collaboratively invented USB-C, each contributing different portions or levels of innovation to the project:
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2015/03/apple-granted-a-second-major-patent-for-a-reversible-usb-connector-usb-type-c.html