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Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller on NFC, Wireless Charging and the Lightning Connector

pandamonia said:
Yeh cus Apple know whats best for their customers?
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No one's forcing you to buy their products though.
Of course Apple has to be some what sure of their decisions, and make the decisions they deem best for their customers. If the choices they make are TRULY not liked (as opposed to opinions and assumptions people make before the product is even released), then they make sure to change it. That's their job, do what they think is best to make better products, and if they're wrong, change it.
 
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chrmjenkins said:
I think Phil has good points, but he also doesn't point out how these additions would hurt. It's not as if wireless charging gets rid of regular cable charging, for example.
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I'll tell you how they can hurt.

NFC could add thickness and battery life concerns. Wireless charging would add another layer of difficulty (and thickness) that would likely conflict with current design. They would have to customize the design for wireless charging (in current state) in mind. For something that's such a novelity that would be kind of silly.
 
Wireless charging!!

Absolutely, positively guaranteeing that the next Iphone will have wireless charging. Book it. By then, everyone will have it and they won't want to be left behind. Besides, they can sell you a charging plate.
 
What is the hard-on about inductive charging? Am I the only person who uses my device while it's charging? If the phone needs to be placed on some sort of mat or pedestal it will only make it less easy to use while charging, unless you're going to keep picking it up and putting it back down.

Now if we can get wireless over the air charging some how then count me in.
 
I agree 100% about the inductive charging. I never understood it. Pluggin my phone in to the wall with a chord actually allows me more freedom to use the device while it's charging vs using an inductive charging mat.

If/when apple changes the way we charge it will be wireless, over the air, not inductive.

As for NFC- I don't have much use for it but- it is the solution to a very important problem- your customers want to buy a phone that has it, and you don't offer a phone that has it.
 
USB 3 needs 9 pins AFAIK. So it won't work without an expensive Chip that converts the 8 pins to nine pins. That means a $29 USB3 cable isn't even that far-fetched.
 
chrmjenkins said:
I think Phil has good points, but he also doesn't point out how these additions would hurt. It's not as if wireless charging gets rid of regular cable charging, for example.
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Cost, weight and volume. There's a universe of "stuff" that could be added but Apple needs to select the features that it believes will serve the needs of the greater population at the lowest cost. Adding "stuff" also adds weight and bulk, so picking the leanest set of valued features allows them to meet their design spec.
 
goobot said:
So are we stuck with usb 2.0 for another 9 years?
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Why would going to USB 3 require a new and incompatible connector on the device?

The previous dock connector changed the signals it handled several times as it evolved and improved over its 10 year lifetime (removing Firewire and replacing it with new types of video, for instance).

USB 3 sounds good as a bullet point, but real-world use vs. cost is of more interest to me. I just don’t move a lot of wired data to my phone.
 
goobot said:
So are we stuck with usb 2.0 for another 9 years?
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Likely not. My guess is that they can add USB 3.0 or another interface if they want. Perhaps with only a handful of USB 3.0 devices they figured it wasn't necessary. Or perhaps they are really trying to push the cloud. Note that they emphasized over and over that iTunes is no longer at the center of the digital hub.

That said, USB 3.0 would have been a nice selling point and something to set it apart from the other phones. Note that Micro-USB is also limited to USB 2.0 since it lacks the extra 4 pins necessary to make a USB 3.0 connection.
 
Xenc said:
You certainly would, especially if you were syncing a large media collection or importing photos.
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Thunderbolt would be another nice-sounding bullet point like USB 3, but it would take a PCI chip from Intel... and synching a large media/photo/app collection is something you do ONCE. After that, it’s only deltas.

b166er said:
...As for NFC- I don't have much use for it but- it is the solution to a very important problem- your customers want to buy a phone that has it, and you don't offer a phone that has it.
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Actually, a slightly different problem :) Some tiny fraction of your customers THINK they want it, and you don’t offer that particular bullet point, but rather a different and likely better solution. Does Passbook prove useful? Time will tell.
 
NFC will be the missing feature. Don't believe it would have been difficult to include. And how "Passbook" will help me paying in a taxi or bus . Or allow to get a drink out of a vending machine. So continue hoping to get it in iPhone 6 in two years ... :(
 
Xenc said:
You certainly would, especially if you were syncing a large media collection or importing photos.
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No. Actually, you wouldn't.


The NAND used in high-end mobile devices is 2-bit MLC in a single package of 1 - 8 die depending on storage capacity. The NAND is typically paired with a controller either on-package or integrated into the applications processor (this is how the iPhone works). That controller is good for performance in the tens of megabytes per second, not anywhere close to the 1GB/s that Thunderbolt can offer. Headroom is the enemy of good low power design. Implementing an interface that can transfer at 1GB/s when you're only going to use 5% of that is not good engineering.
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http://www.anandtech.com/show/5425/why-thunderbolt-wont-come-to-the-iphone-anytime-soon
 
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So true, but the faux nerd complainers prefer useless bullet points features over function. As to why they haven't switched to a gimmicky android phone yet, one can only guess.
 
b166er said:
As for NFC- I don't have much use for it but- it is the solution to a very important problem- your customers want to buy a phone that has it, and you don't offer a phone that has it.
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Some customers want it, and many of them don't know how they'll use it. Apple doesn't build devices to check boxes on a spec sheet. They build devices with features designed around what people are actually likely to use.
 
I knew you would not add NFC but we had to have hope, maybe you:apple: just change your mind.

good point
since its not widely used and ppl are loosing money if its connected to their credit cards once the phone goes into the wrong hand but still....:(
 
THIS SUCKS.

I don't mind change, I get it you need change....but for virtually no new features - not faster...?

I have 3 iphone/ipad chargers around the house. I can probably make do with just using 1 of them for this new iphone 5. I have a bose sounddock....will need to get another one for that...
and car charges - 1 for each car - need to get two for that...

$120 just for adapters??????

also with that the inability to go to my friends house and be compatible with their home set-ups for charging (I don't know about you guys - but im always glad everyone I know use apple products because they all have the same plug!)

I'll wait on this generation until the new plugs (lightning and the stupid magsafe 2) are more widely adopted.

too bad, I would love LTE and the A6 :(
 
chrmjenkins said:
I think Phil has good points, but he also doesn't point out how these additions would hurt. It's not as if wireless charging gets rid of regular cable charging, for example.
Click to expand...

My guess is that it would add to the thickness. I sense that Apple really wanted to claim the "thinnest smartphone" crown with this one, and it is only 0.7mm thinner than the RAZR HD, so probably knew they didn't have much space to work with.
 
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