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John Gruber: Apple Invented USB Type C

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During its Spring Forward Apple media event, Apple announced that the new 12-inch MacBook would adopt the new USB standard USB Type C, which is a multifaceted port that can do multiple things like video and charging. In the newest episode of his podcast The Talk Show, John Gruber mentioned that Apple may have invented the new standard. The mention was first spotted by The Tech Block.

usbc.png
I have heard, can't say who, but let's call them "informed little birdies", that USB-C is an Apple invention and that they gave it to the standard bodies. And that the politics of such is that they can't really say that. They're not going to come out in public and say it, but they did. It is an Apple invention and they do want it to become a standard.
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Gruber's comment comes at the 54 minute mark of the podcast, with TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino saying that Apple inventing USB-C and giving it to the standard bodies wouldn't surprise him. Gruber goes on to note that there are some contexts in which Apple wants users to have a standard port, but that there are other contexts in which they want users to have proprietary ports.

However, Gruber says he does not know whether Apple will adopt USB-C in other devices like iPhones and iPads. Currently, the new USB standard will be only be available for the new 12-inch MacBook. Recently, Google announced that its new Chromebook Pixel would also adopt the standard.

Article Link: John Gruber: Apple Invented USB Type C
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/13/apple-invents-usb-c/
szw-mapple fan

szw-mapple fan

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Jul 28, 2012
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It totally makes sense as a name as well. By naming USB type C and not LightningBolt or whatever, people will think this is a universal thing, rather than a Apple proprietary standard.
 
PowerBook-G5

PowerBook-G5

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Jul 30, 2013
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Interesting. Apple handing the invention off to the USB group or whoever would make it easier for others to adopt. If you heard that Apple had this new port, or the USB group had this new port, whose would you rather believe (if you were a non-Apple product user)? But even this is odd for Apple, usually they want to confine their own inventions to their own products. Times are a changing at Apple, yes they are.
 
R

robjulo

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Really? An Apple shill makes a claim he doesn't support at all and this is front page?
 
M

Manwholikespie

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Nov 27, 2012
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From what I remember, although they did commission quite a few of their engineers to work on it– Dell, HP and Intel engineers were also a part of the team.

Edit: found it.

"Apple assigned 18 engineers to help build it alongside companies like Lenovo, Dell, and HP. That engineer count is second only to Intel (with 24 people) and just above Microsoft’s 16 assigned engineers. Apple significantly surpasses the amount of engineers assigned from Google (10), Dell (5), and HP (6)."
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Source: http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/6/7505187/apple-macbook-2015-usb-type-c-reversible

Edit2: It seems as though that number has climbed to 21. Here is a list showing the engineers Apple currently has that are "USB Implementers". https://www.usb.org/members_landing...A62ju2k.iGY&related_details_batch_start:int=1

Edit 3: And here's the document which supports what the verge writer mentioned:
http://www.docdroid.net/uf3z/typec.pdf.html
 
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redheeler

redheeler

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If this is true it was a good idea to make it a standard, considering what happened with FireWire and Thunderbolt. Now we're bound to see a lot more USB-C peripherals from the beginning.
 
geoelectric

geoelectric

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May 19, 2008
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People seem to be copacetic, but to head off any conspiracy comments, this is typical for how modern standards are created. One company invents it, maybe even deploys it themselves to show practical worth, then it goes in front of the standards committee for vote.

It's probably a little rarer to have Apple push something like this than, say, Intel, but otherwise it's as expected.

The risk, of course, is that the standard gets tweaked before final acceptance, but I suspect the usual way of it is to accept the existing implementation as a 1.0 version, then go to 1.1 for the corrected version, etc.
 
thadoggfather

thadoggfather

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Oct 1, 2007
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To actually add something constructive to this thread, even if Apple didn't invent it, wouldn't they be credited for its adoption (or lack thereof potentially..) anyways?

Are other laptops on the market with USB-C now or imminently?
 
cfedu

cfedu

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Apple invented the mini DP spec and gave it to the standards association, if Apple did make this and gave it away like they did Mini DP I think they would have been more vocal.
 
geoelectric

geoelectric

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May 19, 2008
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redheeler said:
If this is true it was a good idea to make it a standard, considering what happened with FireWire and Thunderbolt. Now we're bound to see a lot more USB-C peripherals from the beginning.
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FireWire was Apple's brand name for IEEE standard 1394, developed by an honest to gosh working group and everything. It was pushed largely by Apple, but also had a number of other companies involved. It was probably pretty comparable to the process behind this, though this looks more promising to me.

Thunderbolt was more of a joint venture between Apple and Intel, but was intended to be more of a sweeping standard, I think. I guess it's not dead yet, but USB-C almost certainly looks to replace it if successful.
 
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