“A report a few days ago said that Apple might be planning a massive change for the iPhone 11, one that we hardly expected Apple to go for until a few months ago. Apple, the story said, will replace the Lightning port on its iPhones with USB-C as soon as this year,” Chris Smith writes for BGR. “That used to be regarded as an unthinkable move for Apple, but the iPhone maker actually signaled that it’s ready to replace its proprietary connector with USB-C in late 2018 when it unveiled the new iPad Pro models, both of which feature USB-C ports instead of Lightning. Then, a more recent report claimed the iPhone 11 phones will have Lightning ports, which isn’t necessarily great news.”
“Replacing the iPhone’s original 30-pin connector with the Lightning port is one of the best decisions Apple ever made. Not only was Lightning better than anything else when it comes to ease of use thanks to its reversible design, but it also freed up internal space in the iPhone, helping the company come up with sleeker designs,” Smith writes. “For years, the competition had no match for Lightning, until USB-C came along because Apple helped develop the new port. Apple was one of the first companies to launch a laptop with only USB-C ports that could be used both for power and data transfer, and it did it at a time when we didn’t have any other USB-C accessories for it.”
“While it was one of the first companies to push the new USB standard, Apple has a USB-C/Lightning problem of its own right now. To this day, you still need a dongle or a new $20 cable to connect any post-2012 iPhone to MacBooks that only feature USB-C ports,” Smith writes. “But rather than buy Lightning-to-USB-C adapters for that new USB-C charger (above), wouldn’t it be a lot easier to have USB-C ports on the iPhone? ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: For convenience sake alone, we’d like to have iPhone’s port match those on our our MacBooks and iPad Pros!
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s next-gen 2019 iPhone will feature 10MP selfie camera, keep Lightning port – January 16, 2019
Apple said to be developing new 7th gen. iPod touch, next-gen iPhones could switch to USB-C – January 15, 2019
Is it me, or are nearly ALL of the solutions to MOST of Apple’s problems so obvious a 3rd grader could figure them out and tell Timmy?
Mr Jr, you’re a third grader why don’t you tell Tim Cook
Jr is a kindergartener, please don’t elevate him to the pantheon of third graders.
Yes. Common sense is not all that common…
While I agree that standardizing on one modern connection is desirable and that replacing the lightning port on iPhones with USB-C seems inevitable, it is not a “no-brainer” of a solution without problems… namely, it will require that people add all their lightning docks and accessories to the junk pile along with all their former 30pin docks and accessories. The large ecosystem of iPhone accessories, especially docks and dockable audio equipment, etc. will once again become obsolete in the face of yet another replacement port.
Time moves on. Apple is well known for leading change like this.
Third party vendors will embrace this because it offers them the ability to provide new products.
With wireless charging available on new iPhones changing the connector may not be a major issue for some.
As an owner of a usbc mbp switching out cables will mean one less to worry about.
Knowing Apple, they will come out with Mini USB-C and explain to everyone why this will be the future port on Apple products.
Dongles and Adaptors “Available Today!”
Been reading idiotic cable comments since SCSI in 1986
Well, at least in ’86 we only had that big, fat 50-pin SCSI block to contend with, and ADB 🙂
I have so many different cablels and adaptors going back at least 10 years that I am going to have to take at least an hour to sort and label them. And to try to determine whether I may ever need them or not.
Is that insane or what? Only Apple could overthink anything to that extent.
Just the mention of SCSI cables brings an intense pain.
Remember having to juggle the order of the SCSI chain of devices to get them all to work? And having to add SCSI bus terminators at the right places, too. It was a pain.
Don’t forget the SCSI ID’s.
The SCSI terminator? That goes at the end.
I don’t remember if it was my GCC external drive, or my UMAX scanner, but one of them could not be the last item in the chain if you used the SCSI terminator. If it was the last item, you had to leave the terminator off. It could be the first item, and then you would need the terminator for the last item.
None of this was mentioned in the instructions, by the way.
SCSI once set up was superior to the master-slave system. It was more money, etc. but for a heavy user, it was worth it.
It’s time to switch the lightning connecter to standard USB C. USB-C is the standard everybody uses in the PC world and Android world. There will be adapter (lightning -> USB C) for the old dongles developed.
None of the computers in our store use USB-C for anything. Still good old USB-A.
I’m not sure about the durability of USB-C, but I do know that my Lightning connectors tend to corrode over time, and around 2-3 years have to be replaced. I’m using OWC Newertech cables, which have a 5 year warranty, so I get a lot of free replacements.