Apple’s shift from the venerable Lightning to a USB-C charging port on the iPhone and other devices is likely to be short-lived.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Apple is set to shift from the Lightning charging port on the iPhone and other devices to USB-C to abide by a new European law, but the company is still planning on a wireless-first future.
The iPhone 15 is essentially a lock to get USB-C in the fall of 2023, beating the mandate by a year. The one remaining iPad without USB-C (the entry-level model), should be getting the port by the end of this year.
That leaves the AirPods, Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad as the lone devices that will need to eventually make the switch… I’d bet the next versions of the regular AirPods, AirPods Pro and AirPods Max all move to USB-C, and that transition should be done by 2024.
I think the USB-C era will be far shorter-lived than the tenure of the 30-pin iPod connector or Lightning… I still believe that Apple’s future is wireless and that some version of the canceled AirPower dream from 2017 will eventually come to fruition — well before a decade from now. At some point in the next few years, Apple will probably begin transitioning entirely to inductive charging on the iPhone and iPad, matching the Apple Watch.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup.
Perhaps Apple’s next big move is to go all-wireless (since you know that’s what they really want anyway). – MacDailyNews, June 12, 2018
A port-free iPhone would be perfect for significantly increasing water resistance while also saving space that could be used for more battery or other components – it’s a win-win! — MacDailyNews, December 5, 2019
All of the issues that arise with a completely sealed iPhone can be solved with a “Super Smart Connector” that features high-speed MagSafe charging and data transfer for things like older vehicles with wired CarPlay via a simple magnetic attachment. — MacDailyNews, January 16, 2020
Regardless, soon Apple’s iPhones won’t have any ports at all. As it stands even today, the Lightning port on our iPhones is a largely superfluous liquid and dust ingress point. If anything, this misguided, shortsighted EU move only hastens Apple’s move to port-free iPhones featuring even better water and dust resistance. – MacDailyNews, June 3, 2022
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.
Wireless is poop when you have to transfer 1tb of data. You need/want a faster connector that you can get with usbc.
Agreed, the magical, high-volume, reliable wireless data transfer system is a fantasy for now, bring on the USB-C. Thanks EU!
Whoever wrote this is a waste of salary
Short lived – Lol
Those wireless chargers will be using the same USB C chargers (that android and many cordless devices like electrical screwdrivers use ) so they can transfer power from the wall to the magnetic wireless chargers.
Such a ridiculous article with nonsense argument points. Who actually wrote this dumpster fire of a writing garbage?
As bad as wireless charging is for the environment (low energy transfer efficiency), I can’t imagine Apple’s users would be that thrilled with a wireless-only future.
I sure as hell don’t want to carry multiple magnetic chargers when travelling. As it is, I’ve got it down to a single brick with multiple ports, couple of USB-C cables and a couple of C->micro-b and C->lightning adapters. adding in a minimum of two pucks would just be a pain in the ass.
Yeah that’s not happening buddy. Wireless is not nearly ready. Ew. Who the fuck would want to deal with that inconvenience?
15W is good enough, any charging faster than that is detrimental to battery longevity.
Not an argument for removing physical connectors.
May the EU be smitten down by a bolt of lightning for their blasphemy! I’m so sick of these multinational corporations being discriminated against all of the time. Corporations are people too, you know!
Mr. Redway, I assume your post was intended to be sarcasm. Corporations are, practically by definition, the antithesis of democracy. Not sure how blasphemy plays into this unless you have an Apple shrine in your home and you misinterpreted von der Leyen’s latest speech. It’s disappointing that any government had to take action, but the EU reasons are valid. Customers have been gouged for years and it’s long overdue to avoid millions of tons of electronic waste. Standardization on stuff like this is a good thing.
Add my vote to those who detest wireless charging or data transfer. Cables just work better and faster all around. Apple is silly to have stuck with slow/limited power Lightning for this long when Macs are up to speed with modern data ports. If Apple makes the mistake to go full wireless to avoid simple cable port compliance which they demonstrated they can do on iPads and Macs, they’ll lose not only people who want reliable fast connectivity and charging, but they will also lose the hefty profits from all their pricey white accessories. The bean counters at Apple will want to sell you clunky white adapters (USB-C to HDMI, for example) for years to come.
The US isn’t a democracy.
If apple switches to wireless only, they’ll create a new wireless standard and lock the IP behind insane licensing fees, just like they did lightning.
“saving space that could be used for more”battery or other components” LoL yes, like when they ditched the 3,5 mm jack and put nothing in it’s place. Or the SIM card in US market and they put a very useful plastic cube in there.
Wireless charging is inefficient. Chargers are bulky and don’t work well on the go.
Unfortunately for them (and soon Apple customers) cable’s serve a far greater purpose than just charging the battery. And even if that was it’s only purpose, having a backup means of charging is also crucial. But just like everything else, their customers will gobble it up. Don’t make device’s for your customers, make customers for your devices.
One thing I use my iPad for is backing up photos when I travel. I own a pretty high storage iPad and a card reader. On long photo trips, I will download the images from my cards to the iPad, not to actually edit on, but as a backup unit l get home. There are purpose built tools for this, but most seem to be pretty terrible, and an iPad lets me view them and do light editing if I have the time, and is much lighter than a laptop.
Wireless charging is slow, inefficient, and produces a ton of heat… try pushing 100W through one to the device, I’ll wait.
Wireless data transfer comes nowhere close to the 80Gbps that thunderbolt could currently offer, or even the 40Gbps of USB.
Wireless data transfer relies on the customer to have a good network, a wired connection does not.
A port-less only iPhone may happen, but it won’t be on the pro models if it does
Going wireless has the same issue of borrowing a charger from someone else when your phone is low and you’re away from home/office. Also, who wants to carry around a wireless charger in their bag to have a charger on them. Plus, most cars don’t have a wireless charger or a place to put on, everyone is expected to buy a new car!?
Wireless charging is an idea that should be dropped for the the extra hassle that it brings to the user. But this is Apple, who also created a mouse that can’t be used while charging.
The other thing is that the EU regulations actually seem to require a port, so not having usb-c would probably be non-compliant in this case. Which is a good thing IMHO.
The utility of a high-speed, direct connect data transfer method cannot be overstated. The fact that Apple has been allowed to get away with retaining USB 2.0 speeds on their phone’s data connector is quite shameful. Given that USB-C has standards for up to 100W charging, display output, audio output, and data transfers at up to 80Gbps at the current revision, there is literally zero reason for them not to stick with Type-C except for the fact that it makes them less money, is more convenient for their customers, and makes their products less “unique”. I do not look forward to the day when Apple decides to go completely wireless on their devices because it will be horrible.
Mac daily news more like straight out of my a** daily news. “Likely”? Where is your source? One guy on Bloomberg News and yourself? Get lost
My wife and I are retired teachers who did our best to keep up with changing technology during our careers. Now that we are living on limited fixed income, we’d like our devices to work without constantly needing new chargers, cables, adapters, etc. Innovation is fine as long as it does not render previous equipment obsolete only 10 years after we acquired it.
We don’t need phones with no ports so that we we can take them into the water, drop them in the sand, and otherwise abuse them. Just give us something useful, sustainable and dependable.