If USB-A was actually obsolete, I'd agree.
It still has greater market acceptance than USB-C.
I just bought a $6,000 pro camera. Guess what it came with? A USB-A cable.
I bought a $2,000 drone -- same thing, USB-A.
All my thumb drives are USB-A. I primarily need them when transferring files to Windows machines (otherwise Airdrop is far superior). What do all the windows machines have? USB-A.
Of course, cheap products also typically use USB-A, for greater compatibility and universal acceptance.
If these manufacturers all adopted USB-C, that's all I would need, but that's simply not the case.
I have far more USB-A devices than USB-C.
Apple understands this, which is why they include USB-A on their desktop machines (even the Mac Mini). This is really just a relic of the Jony Ive era.
It's not about what we "like" it's about what we need. Display Port is better than HDMI, but I'm glad to have an "inferior" HDMI port since far more places have HDMI adapters (for example, every TV does, and most projector / office presentation displays). Sure, I could be angry that they are using an "outdated" standard but the reality is the "older" version is far more common and performs good enough that it's not replaced. USB-A is still a common port, with even new and premium devices being designed and manufactured with USB-A ports. I use the ports my devices need, simple as.
Apple gambled and lost and cannot swallow the hard truth.
In the PC world USB-A are all over place. There is about 3 external hard drives I got all USB-A in past two years. I got three USB sticks over the past three years all USB-A. Not to say wired mouse and wired keyboards using USB-A. To find USB-C you have go out of you way to find some thing.
Well some companies are starting to ship with no USB-A this is going to be painful long road before USB-A dies slow death sadly.
And to make things worse there are still many USB sticks shipping with lower USB-A speeds 2.0 than newer faster USB-A speeds.
In the PC world things change very slow unlike Apple.
It you look at Apple history they never cared about options the company always look at the future.
Well Dell, HP and Lenovo so on was alway about options so much so you can get confused at all the different HP models that came out this year for every user. And Apple never yes ever base the business model on this at all.
When Apple dropped optical drives people complain but shortly after most 90% PC makers all dropped optical drives. And Apple took gamble and won.
When it came to dropping firewire and mini display port Apple took gamble and won. As shortly after PC world dropped it. Same with floppy drive.
But USB-A and HDMI are dying a very slow and in PC world it probably be other 5 to 8 years before goes away like firewire and mini display port. Apple gambled and lost and cannot swallow the hard truth here.
The Apple fanboys before saying who wants to take a big tank to work or school or the office is well some what right. You want lots of ports and older ports yes the old big tank Thinkpad T420 and T410 has VGA port, Display port, USB-A port, optical drives, Ethernet port and Firewire port so on.
But when you look at thickness and weight of new MacBook pros now it thick and heavy and it is some where in the middle.
If you carry around a Thinkpad T420 and T410 and new Macbook pros now the weight is not that big of difference. Yet not any where close to Macbooks Air. So making some thing thiner and not heavy have to do away with ports leading confusion of future where Apple is taking the Mac.
Not sure what Apple has plan for the future or even knows and can lead to future but this feels like schizophrenia.
And trying to bring people back to Apple now probably not work. The people that had printers, scanners, cameras, external hard drives, USB sticks so on all USB-A that switch to PC probably not going see much, oh yes oh Apple looks schizophrenia now and if Apple did embrace option in well the user mouth left a bad taste by Apple and probably not make come back if they left Apple.
This is leading Apple in road some where in middle road here with new Macbook pros being thick and heavy with lack ports of even new modern Thinkpads and HP businesses laptops. With trade of being thick and heavy not being much different of Thinkpads and HP businesses laptops. But some where in middle and schizophrenia like.
The future of computing seems more of mess now unless there is a mass street protest to tell makers of printers, scanners, cameras, external hard drives, USB sticks to all switch to USB-C.
So USB-A and HDMI looks like it have other 5 to 8 years before goes away like firewire and mini display port in PC world. What a big mess and where Apple does not know what to do about it.
