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Can apple ditch usb A?

S

ShubhamBhatia

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 9, 2016
32
10
Is it possible?

Can apple ditch all USB A ports in new macbook pro redesign in favour of USB C. All ports USB C. No usb A, No magsafe, no HDMI, no thunderbolt. providing usb c to lightning cables with all iphone and ipads. ??

if not, what do they want ? different feature for different device ?

usb c to lightning only on ipad pro
usb c only on retina macbook
4 color options only on retina macbook
15 inch screen only on heavy macbook pro
Intel core i7 only on 15 inch screen

3d touch only on iphone
apple pencil only on ipad pro
touch id only on ios

last 3 features i understand needs innovations and some sort of technological developments. but they can possibly change other things.

What do you all think ?
 
Yes they can, no they won't.

However I can see thunderbolt 3 ports with USBC connectors replacing thunderbolt I think the rest will stay the same.
 
ShubhamBhatia said:
No usb A, No magsafe, no HDMI, no thunderbolt. providing usb c to lightning cables with all iphone and ipads. ??
Click to expand...

God I really, really hope not. Not for the MacBook Pro.

Getting rid of all those ports is bad enough, though if they get rid of the MagSafe on the Pro, I don't think I'd be alone in strongly considering jumping ship.
 
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Apple has the best interest in keeping their product line diversified in order to cater to the largest customer base.

There is space in the line-up for a retina display Macbook Air, 13" or 14" rocking a 15W Skylake chip with Iris, which was introduced on this generation.
This chip still needs a fan to be cooled, so it's easy to see the new 13" being as thin as the MBA but with retina display.

It would be thicker than 12" MB, so there is no need to kill the USB-A ports, but I can imagine only 2x TB3 and 2x USB3.0, with every other I/O being ditched.

The 15" Pro would be thicker than the 13" because it must accomodate a 45W quad-core chip, so it could retain all the I/Os of the current one (with TB3 instead of TB2), losing some thickness because maybe the discrete GPU could be dropped and replaced with an external one.

The 13" Pro would serve as a mid-range machine, for those needing a 28W chip, compact form factor but more ports than the 13" Macbook Air.

Non-retina Airs and 13" Classic Pro, discontinued. 12" MB price-dropped with maybe a 128GB model at $999 to serve as an entry level machine.

And I hope that color options are introduced for as many models as possible. I would get a 13" in space gray in an heartbeat.
 
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gpat said:
It would be thicker than 12" MB, so there is no need to kill the USB-A ports, but I can imagine only 2x TB3 and 2x USB3.0, with every other I/O being ditched.
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You mean macbook retina has usb C because of thickness ? then why only one port ?

i think all they need is to make product look cleaner and obviously thinner. they can ditch for slimmer edges. just like they did it on air. even current macbook is thinner at edges.
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keysofanxiety said:
God I really, really hope not. Not for the MacBook Pro.

Getting rid of all those ports is bad enough, though if they get rid of the MagSafe on the Pro, I don't think I'd be alone in strongly considering jumping ship.
Click to expand...
I am expecting thinner magsafe 3 :/ i think i am only one on this planet for this.
 
Apple would certainly be the company to try this, but the technical limitation I see is that Intel only offers the Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt controller card in one and two port configurations, and the ports must be physically located in the laptop chassis very close to the controller. For that reason, I would expect to continue to see Magsafe, two Thunderbolt ports, two usb-A ports, and a headphone jack. I can't see them having identical ports, some of which are Thunderbolt capable, and some that are not, and I am doubtful they'd install two controllers.
 
ShubhamBhatia said:
You mean macbook retina has usb C because of thickness ? then why only one port ?

i think all they need is to make product look cleaner and obviously thinner. they can ditch for slimmer edges. just like they did it on air. even current macbook is thinner at edges.
Click to expand...

The 12" MB was designed around the Core M chip, minuscule logic board, fanless so it can be as small and thin as possible.
You need a more complex design when using ordinary 15W Core i5 chips or higher.

They're not going to just release a complete line-up of thin and compromised laptops with no ports. Some I/O are going to be ditched, maybe MagSafe and SD, some elements from the 12" MB are being exported to the rest of the line-up, like butterfly keyboard and colors, but they still need to keep most of the users happy, so at least the USB3.0 port is here to stay for a long time, along with higher-powered Intel CPUs instead of only Core Ms. Everything else is up for debate.
 
I'm sure there are those that would be happy with a 6" thick MacBook Pro if it meant a desktop class graphics card, 8 cores, 36 hour battery life, superdrive, firewire ports, and floppy drive. I on the other hand would be all for ditching USB A ports for USB C if it meant a lighter machine without sacrificing the quad core, a relevant dGPU (not the outdated cards we've been getting) and not sacrificing on battery life.
 
gpat said:
The 12" MB was designed around the Core M chip, minuscule logic board, fanless so it can be as small and thin as possible.
You need a more complex design when using ordinary 15W Core i5 chips or higher.

They're not going to just release a complete line-up of thin and compromised laptops with no ports. Some I/O are going to be ditched, maybe MagSafe and SD, some elements from the 12" MB are being exported to the rest of the line-up, like butterfly keyboard and colors, but they still need to keep most of the users happy, so at least the USB3.0 port is here to stay for a long time, along with higher-powered Intel CPUs instead of only Core Ms. Everything else is up for debate.
Click to expand...

What are the chances of atleast one usb c port on macbook pro lineup ?
 
MRxROBOT said:
I'm sure there are those that would be happy with a 6" thick MacBook Pro if it meant a desktop class graphics card, 8 cores, 36 hour battery life, superdrive, firewire ports, and floppy drive. I on the other hand would be all for ditching USB A ports for USB C if it meant a lighter machine without sacrificing the quad core, a relevant dGPU (not the outdated cards we've been getting) and not sacrificing on battery life.
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I guess apple don't usually think about market. they create their own.

Starting full touch screen phone.
ipads
ipods
Macbook retina (computer without heavy cpu and one port)

they were not in demand. apple create what they want to. people just buy happily by fitting it into their lives.
 
ShubhamBhatia said:
I guess apple don't usually think about market. they create their own.

Starting full touch screen phone.
ipads
ipods
Macbook retina (computer without heavy cpu and one port)

they were not in demand. apple create what they want to. people just buy happily by fitting it into their lives.
Click to expand...

Apple has retained a very conservative approach to the market for at least 5 years now. They have settled down to be just an high-quality manufacturer with a very solid software ecosystem. They're not going to turn their own products upside-down just because they can.
 
ShubhamBhatia said:
You mean macbook retina has usb C because of thickness ? then why only one port ?

i think all they need is to make product look cleaner and obviously thinner. they can ditch for slimmer edges. just like they did it on air. even current macbook is thinner at edges.
[doublepost=1462799486][/doublepost]
I am expecting thinner magsafe 3 :/ i think i am only one on this planet for this.
Click to expand...

One port to fit the full size keyboard in, it is edge to edge leaving only 2 small places for the ports it has.
 
If there we 2 or 3 Thunderbolt 2 or USB C type ports and an SD card reader I would be fine with it I would miss the ethernet connector, but can get by with Wifi only.
 
My theory.

Current MacBook Pros have 6 ports (not counting 3.5mm headphones and SDXC card):
  • MagSafe 2
  • Two Thunderbolt 2
  • Two USB 3
  • HDMI
I think Apple will go with one of two options:

Option 1: Replace Thunderbolt 2 and USB-A ports with 4 USB-C ports that can double as Thunderbolt 3. None of the ports can be used for charging.

Option 2: 6 USB-C ports only. All can double as Thunderbolt 3 and can be used for charging (obviously only from 1 at a time like Chromebook Pixel).

I think option 2 is more Apple like. I think Apple will finally replace Thunderbolt Display (3 USB-A 2.0, FireWire 800, Ethernet, Thunderbolt) with 5K Display that will serve as a hub for legacy ports (3 USB-A 3.0 ports, HDMI, Ethernet, Thunderbolt 2).
 
Non USB C is too prevalent to pull. I know...buy a dongle. Dongle to a hub and you get a half assed voltron setup for some people with a fair amount of traditional USB devices. Worst case it be a powered hub (to resolve ye old mbp going this device has a problem because not enough power). Apple not really making things convenient on this path.



Why would they pull hdmi? this a standard connector for a laptop these days. it can be assumed the road warriors and such will be hooking up to TV's in conference rooms via it for presentations and such.

Some tend to like simple since plug laptop to presentation systems should be the easy part to the process. Lots of pre show crap to sweat over...not saying oh crap, where is the dongle saves 1 of them. HDMI on the body saves at least one headache for all. So that way they can focus on oh crap...where is the clicker? that's not a show stopper...worst case you find a human clicker to replace the BT one lol.
 
nutmac said:
My theory.

Current MacBook Pros have 6 ports (not counting 3.5mm headphones and SDXC card):
  • MagSafe 2
  • Two Thunderbolt 2
  • Two USB 3
  • HDMI
I think Apple will go with one of two options:

Option 1: Replace Thunderbolt 2 and USB-A ports with 4 USB-C ports that can double as Thunderbolt 3. None of the ports can be used for charging.

Option 2: 6 USB-C ports only. All can double as Thunderbolt 3 and can be used for charging (obviously only from 1 at a time like Chromebook Pixel).

I think option 2 is more Apple like. I think Apple will finally replace Thunderbolt Display (3 USB-A 2.0, FireWire 800, Ethernet, Thunderbolt) with 5K Display that will serve as a hub for legacy ports (3 USB-A 3.0 ports, HDMI, Ethernet, Thunderbolt 2).
Click to expand...

Or only 2 Usb C ? one for charging one for usb connector coz its pro lineup. This one is more apple like.
 
hiddenmarkov said:
Non USB C is too prevalent to pull.
Click to expand...
Yet, Apple has made such dramatic moves in the past. The original iMac dropped the floppy disk, and at the time, that was still a medium that was used quite a bit. The optical drive in 2012 is another example of a component nearing its EOL but still heavily used by a bunch of people.

I hope they don't drop it, but as I said, I'd not be totally shocked or surprised.
 
maflynn said:
Yet, Apple has made such dramatic moves in the past. The original iMac dropped the floppy disk, and at the time, that was still a medium that was used quite a bit. The optical drive in 2012 is another example of a component nearing its EOL but still heavily used by a bunch of people.

I hope they don't drop it, but as I said, I'd not be totally shocked or surprised.
Click to expand...
it wouldn't surprise me either -- unfortunately. Apple has certainly started developing a history of antagonising users in the last few years or so. The real question is how much longer they can do this, before it majorly hurts the company. Their reputation for making high quality, reliable and premium goods took decades to create, but it won't take nearly as long to destroy.
 
Phoenixx said:
Their reputation for making high quality, reliable and premium goods took decades to create, but it won't take nearly as long to destroy.
Click to expand...
But this isn't about Apple's quality, or reputation in creating premium products, its about them dropping the older USB port.

As I mentioned even back with the Bondi blue iMac in 1998, they dropped a component that many thought was still needed. If they did this back then when they were struggling to grow the Macintosh line, they certainly can do it now.
 
Phoenixx said:
Their reputation for making high quality, reliable and premium goods took decades to create, but it won't take nearly as long to destroy.
Click to expand...

How providing usb c would destroy that reputation ? they can make high quality, reliable and premium usb c ports.

Question is how they turn the product into future flagship computer.
 
maflynn said:
Yet, Apple has made such dramatic moves in the past. The original iMac dropped the floppy disk, and at the time, that was still a medium that was used quite a bit. The optical drive in 2012 is another example of a component nearing its EOL but still heavily used by a bunch of people.

I hope they don't drop it, but as I said, I'd not be totally shocked or surprised.
Click to expand...


Optical was already on the way out. DDL the way most times now and if needed you can get cheap options external 3rd party.

Non USB C....this would be a potential case leading the tech industry so far it have very few followers. Case of the yay they claimed that hill...but its a hill not many wanted.

And at least in my case it be +1 reason to make my 2015 my last MBP, ever. Old USB core to my processes now. Is for many. And I am not seeing major vendors bend over backwards to catch up to apple. They too will say well dongle/adapter it. Go to electronics geek store, see external drive say for Mac and read the box. Most times does not mean t-bolt connection. It means fat 32 format to be read and an application for mac on the root of the drive.

Apple tried to lead here too...and it took years find vendors (and just a few) to say okay, we'll make a t-bolt ext. drive just for you. And in my case...I don't like say lacie products too much. Too many bad experiences with them. It was company bought stuff so no skin off my nose. My personal money on that stuff? hell no.

Some would go its just a dongle/adapter. I say its the straw that broke the camels back. I have enough of these with video work (3.5 to xlr for preamp, hdmi cables to various lengths, etc) and trying to use my MBP at work (Ethernet to usb adapter)....just one more would be one more too much basically. I already hate checking the bag now to make sure my Ethernet to usb adapter is in it. More adapters....I should not need to have a long preflight checklist to go over visually to have my MBP functional before I leave the house lol.

Day apple says old USB is useless is the day I look at my $2500+ in video gear, look at them, and go you might want to start firing up mandatory drug testing apple...and start at the executives and upper management level. because someone is smoking some high grade stuff.
 
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