Just a thought: Lightning ports in mac laptops?

[tresmith]

I haven't seen this discussed anywhere else but recent discussions about the up coming mba being so thin that it will have to forgo some of its ports, got me thinking.

The thinnest ports Apple makes is lightning and from what I've read, lightning is capable of being tweaked to support USB 3 speeds, so with Apple's never ending quest to make laptops thinner, replacing the other ports with lightning makes sense...at least to me.

lighting in mac laptops offers a few benefits:

the very small packaging of lighting will make it much easier to make laptops alot thinner

much simpler and durable design

benefit of reversibility...so they can nix that reversible usb adapter that's in development

reversibility taken to the next step: two way cables with the same adapter at either end..so now, not only does it not matter which side of the plug is up it also doesn't matter which end you plug in.

Am I off with my thinking here?

 

[yjchua95]

I haven't seen this discussed anywhere else but recent discussions about the up coming mba being so thin that it will have to forgo some of its ports, got me thinking.

The thinnest ports Apple makes is lightning and from what I've read, lightning is capable of being tweaked to support USB 3 speeds, so with Apple's never ending quest to make laptops thinner, replacing the other ports with lightning makes sense...at least to me.

lighting in mac laptops offers a few benefits:

the very small packaging of lighting will make it much easier to make laptops alot thinner

much simpler and durable design

benefit of reversibility...so they can nix that reversible usb adapter that's in development

reversibility taken to the next step: two way cables with the same adapter at either end..so now, not only does it not matter which side of the plug is up it also doesn't matter which end you plug in.

Am I off with my thinking here?

That would be Thunderbolt 3.

 

[2IS]

At that point apple is on their way to making a product that's less useful than their current laptops and less portable than iPads. You'd need an adapter for literally everything you want to connect to the device.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

Lightning is not a standard, Apple will likely go with USB C on the Mac rather than Lightning.

 

[lionkin]

Lightning is not a standard, Apple will likely go with USB C on the Mac rather than Lightning.

usb c is better option.

 

[maflynn]

Lightening ports are not standardized, most peripheral makers will not be producing a set of products just to fit in that port. That means buying a hub or worse, dongles. USB C is a better option, but it will prevent apple from making the laptops even thinner (that's not a bad thing at this point imo)

 

[tresmith]

At that point apple is on their way to making a product that's less useful than their current laptops and less portable than iPads. You'd need an adapter for literally everything you want to connect to the device.

looks like they are heading in that direction (using adapters) if rumors are true.

I'm not against using dongle adapters. I'm already using one because my mbp has too few usb ports.

----------

Lightning is not a standard, Apple will likely go with USB C on the Mac rather than Lightning.

great point, however, it's not beyond Apple to try to make one of their own technologies and industry standard. thunderbolt and firewire comes to mind.

 

[hallux]

looks like they are heading in that direction (using adapters) if rumors are true.

I'm not against using dongle adapters. I'm already using one because my mbp has too few usb ports.

----------



great point, however, it's not beyond Apple to try to make one of their own technologies and industry standard. thunderbolt and firewire comes to mind.

Technically, the Lightning port is just an Apple-specific connection on the peripheral end, as their own take on the USB standard (as that's what the other end is). There is already an industry-standard computer-end connection called USB-C (as noted by another poster). Making Lightning the computer end would be Apple reinventing the wheel and shunning peripheral manufacturers that would then need to design specifically for Apple rather than the industry as a whole.

 

[Natzoo]

same speed as usb 3 but not usb c