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iPhone Sticking With Lightning Port Over USB-C for 'Foreseeable Future'

MacSERV said:
Apple gets $3.00 per chip that is embedded in each MFi-certified cable or port. That’s not peanuts.
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no, compared to the overall quarterly revenue, it's peanuts.

think about the ramifications if Apple did switch to USB-C. more people would buy magsafe accessories (since they're switching anyways), more people would switch over from Android, more people would buy Apple branded USB-C cables. if Apple being greedy is your thesis, switching to USB-C would make Apple a lot more money than keeping lightning.
 
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that sucks.

The only reason this is being done over the standardized USB C is because APPLE wants to screw its own customers on the high prices of Lightning Cables.
 
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Suckfest 9001 said:
It adds up to quite a bit. Is it a double digit percentage? Maybe not. Does it pull in probably millions per year? Wouldn’t be surprised. Am I interested in further discussing this with people who just vote apple instead of voting for what’s best for the industry and customers? Not in the slightest.
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Ok, I have seen the 0.5% number mentioned here. How much do you spend on third-party stuff with a Lightning port? I'd be surprised if that is even 10% of what people spend on iPhones. The latter have a gross margin of about 35%. If Apple earns 100 billion dollars from iPhones that is 35 billion dollars in gross margin. With a third-party Lightning market of 10%, ie, 10 billion dollars, from which Apple gets 0.5%, that is 50 million dollars. In comparison to 35 billion, 50 million is a rounding error.
 
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jingbugle said:
I had the exact opposite experience. I go through those cables a lot.
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Do you go through a lot of Lightning cables or do you go through a lot of Apple-branded Lightning cables? Point being, in my experience it is the cable part that breaks, in my mind, too easily on Apple Lightning cables, not the plug part. In other words, using a higher quality cable material (eg, a braided one), Lightning cables can last very long.
 
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As iPhones get more and more powerfull, having the option to use it with a UBC-C hub and a monitor or other accessories (ie. pro camera) would be a nice addition.
 
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MacSERV said:
Apple gets $3.00 per chip that is embedded in each MFi-certified cable or port. That’s not peanuts.
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Ok, how many third-party products with a Lightning port have I bought over the years? Two, that is $6 from my purchases, compared to thousands of dollars I've spend on iPhones and iPads over the years.
 
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ghostface147 said:
Weird. USB-C is used in some form on most of their products. A portless model would be super super slow for those who transfer a lot of data over a cable now.
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I wonder if magsafe becomes a replacement for the Smart Connector. Apple goes back to the striped apple logo where the strips are individual electrical contacts 😉
 
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zorinlynx said:
I know I'll catch flak for saying this, but...

I'm glad. The lightning connector is a lot more durable than USB-C. I honestly think that this is why Apple keeps using it in their highest volume products.

We tend to plug and unplug our phones a lot to charge them, sometimes on a daily basis.

I've seen Macbooks with USB-C where the socket has worn out to such an extent the plug will fall out if you turn it sideways.

I've never seen a lightning connector wear out. At the worst it needs an occasional cleaning.

Yes, it's annoying to have a different connector than my Android friends but honestly, it's not a big deal. I almost always have a cable in my car I can use in an emergency.
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I can speak from experience here, since I use devices with both ports for my work. My iPad Pro 9.7‘s lightning connector wore out over time to the point now where it won’t make reliable contact unless you push and hold on the cable connector. Yes, I keep the port clean and I even keep a rubber cap on it when in the field. I retired that iPad for this reason.

My USB-C devices see just as much use and none have experienced any issues with that connector.
 
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sw1tcher said:
The other explanation as to why Apple removed the 3.5mm headphone jack.

For people who want ear/headphones, this forces them to either

(1) buy wired ear/headphones with lightning connector from Apple or MFi certified ones, or
(2) buy wireless earphones... most of which will likely be a variant of Apple's AirPods or something from their Beats line.

In either case, Apple win$.

KaNxPJk.png
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And the AirPods and Beats ones break the Bluetooth standard to get around its flaws.
There's a reason almost nobody used BT headphones while they had the jack.
 
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*facepalm*

Apple cares more about their MFi certification program than they do about customers' enjoyment of their products.

"It just works" is gone forever. USB-C is the universal port. It's the only logical choice, if the goal is for consumers to be able to conveniently use their products.

Sticking with Lighting is extremely consumer-hostile.
 
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SSDGUY said:
I get that. But another way for companies to think about it (and especially if they claim to be "all-that" about the environment) is to prolong the usefulness of their products. When anytime you want to connect to any devise to play audio from your phone, you need bluetooth in the signal path (and the associated hassles of disconnecting other devices from that BT device) it's not the modern seamless experience everyone imagines. A radio transmitter, hmm … been there, done that. Doesn't pair with with Apple Car Play.
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I agree, it sucks. I don't use Bluetooth. Just never expected a new car's tech not to become outdated quickly. I'm perfectly content with only connecting audio to my car; idk what else I'd want. Even wired CarPlay was annoying whenever I tried it, too complicated for something that's 99% just serving as an aux + charging port.
 
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Why would Apple want to replace their Lightning connectors? They’re no older than the current iMac form factor. 🙄
 
AlexESP said:
If USB-C was really such a good feature, they wouldn’t doubt about it. Profit of one iPhone is bigger than 20 cables (additional cables, since one is already included). It’s like people saying that Apple doesn’t make an iPad with macOS because it would eat Mac sales: what would Apple like better than having a successful Tablet-PC mix! The real reason in both cases is that they have a lot of downsides.
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It's not just cable sales but control. Apple controls a proprietary standard that billions of people use. They won't give that up even if USB-C is a lot better, which it is.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
Why? The only reasons you can't plug your phone into a USB-C dock and have a full fledged computer experience are:

1) There is no USB type C port on the iPhone
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So…
Instead of simply grabbing my iPhone at home to type up a message while I am doing whatever I am doing at my then current location, I am going to walk to my office, hook it up to a docking station, pair it up with a keyboard & mouse, launch the Messages app and send my message there. Oh wait, I will also have to return to the office to read the response.
Even better: I will have to worry about how ALL apps are scaled when the iPhone is hooked up to a 4K monitor via a docking station and I will also ensure that I complain that none of my streaming apps are working when the iPhone is docked due to copyright restrictions.
Let’s make the change to USB-C overnight. Makes total sense. While we are at it, let’s also throw an SD card slot in there AND manufacture a Magsafe external HDD wallet for the iPhone because I have heard magnets and external storages go great hand to hand. I am fully on board, anyone else with me on this?!
 
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hot-gril said:
I agree, it sucks. I don't use Bluetooth. Just never expected a new car's tech not to become outdated quickly. I'm perfectly content with only connecting audio to my car; idk what else I'd want. Even wired CarPlay was annoying whenever I tried it, too complicated for something that's 99% just serving as an aux + charging port.
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I tried Apple Car Play on a rental car once and thought was way too distracting and cumbersome, but now that I have the latest version in my own car, I've really come to like it.
 
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iAFC said:
Lightning is unparalleled when it comes for ruggedness. And I would bet it has an even wider adoption than USB-C. It would not be wise to change to another standard when the future for the iPhone clearly is portless.
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Lightening is rubbish. I have black on contacts on all my connectors and cables. Sometimes I have flip them over to get am connection. Most are Apple products. When will we get USB-C which is much more robust!
 
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Anything USB has been trash since inception, and USB-C is no exception. I’m happy they are keeping their Lightning connector. Every USB I’ve ever had started having issues a short time later. The USB ports on my computer are so worn out after a year I don’t even use them no more because of the constant lost connections between my devices and the motherboard.
 
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someoneoutthere said:
So…
Instead of simply grabbing my iPhone at home to type up a message while I am doing whatever I am doing at my then current location, I am going to walk to my office, hook it up to a docking station, pair it up with a keyboard & mouse, launch the Messages app and send my message there. Oh wait, I will also have to return to the office to read the response.
Even better: I will have to worry about how ALL apps are scaled when the iPhone is hooked up to a 4K monitor via a docking station and I will also ensure that I complain that none of my streaming apps are working when the iPhone is docked due to copyright restrictions.
Let’s make the change to USB-C overnight. Makes total sense. While we are at it, let’s also throw an SD card slot in there AND manufacture a Magsafe external HDD wallet for the iPhone because I have heard magnets and external storages go great hand to hand. I am fully on board, anyone else with me on this?!
Click to expand...
I mean, you don't have to use a dock. The iPad already supports all of the functionality describes, that doesn't force people to stop using them as tablets.
 
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