Problems in this sentence:
"It was GREAT news for me and for several developers I know. Faster data speeds means more data in real time, and less waiting for transfers. I (and the developers I know) are willing to pay a price for better. I think MANY people are."
Well, kd5jos, I find it interesting that you are making claims for Lightning that Apple doesn't appear to have made itself. When Apple announced the introduction of Lightning I don't remember it offering any explanation what if any advantages it has over the old 30-pin connection. Perhaps it did to developers, but it sure didn't to us end users. Very possibly it does offer faster data speeds, as you say and as the word Lightning might suggest. But if this is true, Apple should have told the world this from Day One. The way it was shoved at us without any justification, so that the disadvantages of this change were painfully visible and the advantages, if any, not visible at all, was a lousy exercise in public relations, and if you take the time to read all the posts in this thread you can't avoid seeing the customer resistance expressed by quite a few contributors. Sure, I can accept change. What computer user doesn't? But there's gotta be some kind of visible payoff that makes the bitter pill of obsolescence easier to swallow, and so far I, for one, can't see any. And I'm far from the only person in the world who thinks that Apple charging thirty-some bucks for an adapter makes the pill taste all the worse.