Apple's Strict Requirements for Its Third-Party Lightning Accessory Program Detailed

rdlink said:

Yeah, because Apple is so known for providing bad user experiences.

You buy a $300 phone, spend $2000+ for two years worth of service, and likely have a $1500+ Mac or two sitting around the house, and you can't afford an extra $20 for a cable? Wish you people would just grow up a little.

Not to mention that it's not inconceivable that Apple could have some pretty far out things planned for this cable's capabilities in the future.

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Well the flip side of that is - you just spent all that money and they want to nickel and dime you over a cable. I think that's the point people are making.

You know - when I used to fly all the time - I was annoyed when I was on a flight that kept getting more expensive each time that they would come around the cabin and charge $2 for headphones to watch the movie. Either absorb the cost or just add the $2 to the cost of the ticket. At that point the $2 doesn't mean anything to the price. But as a separate charge - it's poor customer relations.

Fatalbert said:

Actually, the ability to plug it in either way is a convenience for charging. Anything that has Lightning is not designed only to be charged. You're being narrow-minded if you're applying this to other customers. iDevices are meant to work with various accessories and sync with PCs.

I'd be fully satisfied if Apple stopped this DRM nonsense and actually moved everything to Lightning instead of awkwardly keeping older devices at the old standard.

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How can other customers with older phones that don't use the new standard, or old clock radios that don't have lightening built in? Who is getting screwed here?

MacNut said:

How can other customers with older phones that don't use the new standard, or old clock radios that don't have lightening built in? Who is getting screwed here?

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Where is the main verb in that sentence?

Fatalbert said:

Where is the main verb in that sentence?

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Why bother type the whole thing out when you don't bother to hear an argument in the first place.

samcraig said:

Well the flip side of that is - you just spent all that money and they want to nickel and dime you over a cable. I think that's the point people are making.

You know - when I used to fly all the time - I was annoyed when I was on a flight that kept getting more expensive each time that they would come around the cabin and charge $2 for headphones to watch the movie. Either absorb the cost or just add the $2 to the cost of the ticket. At that point the $2 doesn't mean anything to the price. But as a separate charge - it's poor customer relations.

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You prefer being forced to pay for $2 headphones? What if you wanted to use your own headphones? I don't see what the big deal is about the Lightning cables. You get one with your iDevice, and they're not ridiculously expensive to replace if lost like how the MacBook chargers are.

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MacNut said:

Why bother type the whole thing out when you don't bother to hear an argument in the first place.

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Sorry if I hurt your feelings.

Fatalbert said:

You prefer being forced to pay for $2 headphones? What if you wanted to use your own headphones? I don't see what the big deal is about the Lightning cables. You get one with your iDevice, and they're not ridiculously expensive to replace if lost like how the MacBook chargers are.

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Sorry if I hurt your feelings, but it's impossible to understand that other sentence.

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Meh, I was editing quickly and didn't bother to fix it.

Back on topic, why is it ok for Apple to fleece the consumer by forcing them to buy new cables and new standards every year. This is the way Apple is making money, by forcing you to buy over priced cables, they are worse than Monster.

MacNut said:

Meh, I was editing quickly and didn't bother to fix it.

Back on topic, why is it ok for Apple to fleece the consumer by forcing them to buy new cables and new standards every year. This is the way Apple is making money, by forcing you to buy over priced cables, they are worse than Monster.

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Apple last changed the standard in 2003. Unlike the 2003 standard, Lightning is designed to be useful for many years to come with its ability to reassign pins. Apple includes a free Lightning to USB adaptor with every device that needs it, so there's no forcing of anyone.

Fatalbert said:

Apple last changed the standard in 2003. The 30-pin connector was too big and not planned as well for the long run.

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How is it too big? and if not planned for the long term why use it for 10 years?

Fatalbert said:

You prefer being forced to pay for $2 headphones? What if you wanted to use your own headphones? I don't see what the big deal is about the Lightning cables. You get one with your iDevice, and they're not ridiculously expensive to replace if lost like how the MacBook chargers are.

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He's saying that it's bad show to charge for them.
Everyone knows that shops make 1000s of % profit on cables, it would be nice if apple broke the trend.
What a few people have missed is that apple are not allowing cloned cables, they simply can't stop them, and adding ridiculous DRM into cables is dirt cheap for a production powerhouse like apple. There's no excuse for their expensive cables other than the fact that everyone else is doing it.

my op

So what. I have multiple docks for 4s. They offer an adapter but the truth is everything is now bluetooth including my car. It's just the way it is. If your docking (as I) you will be a dinosaur soon . Stop whining get on board. the fewer the connections the better.....

VoR said:

He's saying that it's bad show to charge for them.
Everyone knows that shops make 1000s of % profit on cables, it would be nice if apple broke the trend.
What a few people have missed is that apple are not allowing cloned cables, they simply can't stop them, and adding ridiculous DRM into cables is dirt cheap for a production powerhouse like apple. There's no excuse for their expensive cables other than the fact that everyone else is doing it.

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I agree on this. I'm not defending the price of Lightning cables, only the decision to switch to them.

....wtf said:

So what. I have multiple docks for 4s. They offer an adapter but the truth is everything is now bluetooth including my car. It's just the way it is. If your docking (as I) you will be a dinosaur soon . Stop whining get on board. the fewer the connections the better.....

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Fewer connections? Apple is making more of them. How many adapters do you need to use an old cable with a new iphone?

MacNut said:

How is it too big? and if not planned for the long term why use it for 10 years?

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Apple had to change the connector to slim down the iPhone. It was planned well enough to be useable for about 9 years, but by 2012, times had changed a lot. The iPhone didn't even exist until 4 years after the old standard came into effect. In 2003, the iPod had a black-and-white display. There was no support for photo or video. The only thing it could do was play music.

Fatalbert said:

Apple had to change the connector to slim down the iPhone. It was planned well enough to be useable for about 9 years, but by 2012, times had changed a lot. The iPhone didn't even exist until 4 years after the old standard came into effect.

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And how thin is micro usb? Why not just use the industry standard?

MacNut said:

And how thin is micro usb? Why not just use the industry standard?

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Cause the industry standard sucks. MicroUSB is slightly thinner, but it's not worth it.

Fatalbert said:

Cause the industry standard sucks. MicroUSB is slightly thinner, but it's not worth it.

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Why is it not worth it? It's cheaper, cables are abundant.

Pakaku said:

You're forgetting one simple thing: Apple is the antithesis to choice.

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Choice is confusing.
Imagine the confusione that would ensue if one had to choose between two different size phones.

MacNut said:

Why is it not worth it? It's cheaper, cables are abundant.

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It's not expandable at all. Once some more things change, Apple would have to change the connector to whatever the new USB standard is that does what it needs to do. Actually, MicroUSB already can't do everything an iPhone with Lightning can do even if it can do the basic functions.

Keep in mind that it's very possible that phones will be able to act as PCs by themselves soon. Apple is being wise in planning for anything that can happen. You think connecting a mouse, keyboard, display, and other ports will work all through MicroUSB? It sure will work over Lightning.

Fatalbert said:

Actually, MicroUSB already can't do everything an iPhone with Lightning can do even if it can do the basic functions.

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I'm not sure why apple couldnt have used micro USB and achieved everything lightning does (except the physically reversible plug obviously)... It's a just a cable - why wouldn't a non-standard, authenticated, apple branded dongle for 'advanced' features like AV etc. be feasible over it?

Why would they though? There's even people posting here that are happy to pay a price premium simply because they've already bought an expensive phone on contract. Boggles the mind

MagnusVonMagnum said:

-Apple Approved Thunderbolt to HDMI Adapter: $35-45
-3rd Party Generic with Free Shipping: $1.99 (I bought THREE of these just in case and one of them for another family member; they work PERFECTLY with full audio).

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Care to provide a link for the rest of us?

VoR said:

I'm not sure why apple couldnt have used micro USB and achieved everything lightning does (except the physically reversible plug obviously)... It's a just a cable - why wouldn't a non-standard, authenticated, apple branded dongle for 'advanced' features like AV etc. be feasible over it?

Why would they though? There's even people posting here that are happy to pay a price premium simply because they've already bought an expensive phone on contract. Boggles the mind

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It can. Fatalbert just had no idea what hes talking about.

inscrewtable said:

I'm with Apple all the way on this one. The lightning cable is s auperb bit of engineering and with something as lithe as an ipod touch 5G it required a plug of this sophistication to be invented.

And by golly that's what Apple did and it is not an area that users would want to try and haggle over a few dollars. Besides that, they are allowing authorised people to make them cheaper anyway.

To complain about this is churlish in the extreme. And also a bit sad.

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I see what you did there.

I just wish Apple would let the users USE the new features. The cables are serialized which means the device can read the ID for the cable. So why can't my phone go into car mode when I connect it to the cable I keep in my car? Or office mode at work?

The security side of things is just what the laptop manufacturers have done for years, my 2004 Dell laptop had a security chip in the charger. It specifies what wattage the charger is and identifies non Dell chargers. That said I've used a Kensington charger on two generations of Dell notebooks. I've always assumed that if the Kensington charger managed to damage the system, Dell could have read the bios to see that a non Dell charger had been used and therefore deny the warranty.

Apple could be protecting itself from warranty claims and poor customer experience, but it could make that abundantly clear by making the MFi a not for profit program, or at least disclose a very small MFi profit. At that point the uber-secret NDAs and terms would be clearly for protecting the information Apple shares and not to obscure possible racketeering.

MacRumors said:

iPhone accessories are a multi-million dollar business and Apple wants to ensure that users have the best experience possible by only allowing approved third-party accessories to be used with new iOS devices.

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Or no experience at all... Went into the Apple store a couple weeks ago and still can't buy a dock for my phone. All I can really find to accessorize my phone is $5 injection molded cases in a million shades of pink, and $20 charging cables.

They've pretty much ground this multi-million dollar business to a halt.

nagromme said:

I like the Lightning connector, but I don't like the sound of this--I file it under Needless Complexity.

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I agree. It feels to me like someone overreacted to a bad experience in the past. It has all the earmarks of an exec calling a idea meeting, holding something up in front of the room, and shouting "Your job is to make sure something like this never happens again!"

MacNut said:

Apple wants to charge top dollar for these cables and squeeze out the third parties ability to sell them.

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Agreed and they are just greedy when it comes to making the most they can and squeezing the most out of us. Tell me home much a cable will make or break a user experience? It is just their greed to make as much as possible, only loser is the consumer if you ask me.