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I can't seem to find this information anywhere but what are the specs of the smart connector currently in terms of data transfer rates, power transfer and any other details.
 
No wired headphones ? Unless they offer 24hrs listening time on their AirPods or MagSafe type of headphones.
 
Well I'm sure Apple are being greedy, that's capitalism and Apple in particular, but I'm not sure it's fair to say that's what's going on here. Getting rid of a point of ingress and mechanical failure surely makes sense from a durability perspective? Besides, Apple don't own the Qi standard, unlike Lightning, so how would they be making money from this?
Honestly they would sell a lot more AirPods if they drop lightning/all ports. Management surely isn't blind to that fact when green lighting this.
 
Portless = no way for secure local syncing = no buy
If anything, I suspect that Apple eliminating a wired data port is a benign way (at least in part) to scuttle the inroads forensic extraction/device cracking boxes have made in recent years.

Dropping Lightning would instantly render at least one popular box in particular that happens to have two molded-on Lightning ports obsolete.
 
Wireless is great but it’s too slow to be the only way to charge your phone

Only thing i use the cable for apart from topping up quickly - is car play. How would that work if the vast majority of cars do not support wireless carplay ? Some kind of sh...ty magnetic dongle ?
 
Maybe Apple can make something like MagSafe for iPhones. It could be flush and still be able to charge wired.
 
Forcing only wireless charging is an environmental crime.

The energy losses over millions of Phones will be massive.
Wired charging has an efficiency of 85%. Wireless charging at this point has an efficiency of 75%. Let's say an average phone has a battery capacity of 10 Wh = 36 kJ, let's just round in up to 40 kJ, whatever (it's probably way less than that). Let's say every person in the USA charges their phone once a day, from 0 to full charge (it's probably less, half of that or something). That means wired they'll use 47 kJ of electric energy, wireless it's 53 kJ. So a waste of 6 kJ/person/day. Over a year and all Americans that is roughly 700 TJ of wasted energy. The energy production overall in the USA per year is 100,000,000 TJ. This is all pretty rough, but you see, it doesn't actually matter all that much. At the most we are talking about 0.007‰ of the overall energy production.
 
How do you wirelessly charge a phone when it's, say, in your car being used for navigation (something I do every day to get to work). I like to take a lightning cable with me everywhere I go, and leave one in my car, and leave one at home, because otherwise I'd eventually not have one when I need it. I doubt wireless chargers would be cheap enough to just buy 3 of. They are also much more bulky than a simple cable.
Cradle type arrangment shouldn’t de difficult
 
That's just bull. Finally, for a brief glorious moment in time, Apple could have achieved full parity between all their flagship devices for cords, accessories, adapters. Alas, no. They'd rather go .. cordless instead? How would that even work on the go? How could you even connect things, like e.g. your prized pair of wired headphones? I wonder if somewhere in that glass donut in Cupertino there is a special team devoted to nothing but causing the befuddlement and frustration of users.
 
I’ve found the opposite.
Tech youtubers and tech media in general are pretty myopic if we look back at their tedious echo-chamber chatter . They are more turned on by silly gimmicks like foldable phones they proclaim are the “future.” Being that many of these silly devices have already been released in “the past” i don’t know how that infatuation holds up.
 
Many of the decisions that Apple makes in terms of product features reflect future roadmaps. When discussing such matters, it helps to think about how Apple may be setting the stage for the future. Else, it ends up like the headphone jack saga all over again, with everyone whining about how they are no longer able to use their wired headphones, and nobody trying to analyse the "why" behind such a move.

If a major change is included in one iPhone model, it is best to think of that change in context of the next few iPhone reiterations. Another way of thinking about this move is that Apple often needs to sow the seeds with one iPhone model in order to introduce future features and capabilities in subsequent iPhones.

Personally, I don't think it's would be a big deal for Apple to move from lightning to USB-C. They took the criticism when they moved from 30-pin to lightning, they can do it all over again. The reason why Apple hasn't done so, I suspect, is because it simply doesn't fit in with their long term product roadmap.

Many of the benefits of USB-C over lighting have been stated over and over again (such as faster charge speeds and faster data transfer rates), and I agree with most of them. However, I believe the reason for Apple continuing to stick with lightning is likely because Apple ultimately believes in a wireless future. They flat out stated as such during one of their keynotes even (can't recall which one offhand).

Assuming Apple's long-term goal is to eventually remove all ports from its devices, it makes sense for Apple to just stick it out with Lightning and forgo USB-C until they are ready to drop the port altogether. Switching to a new iPhone port now or sometime in the near future for "better data transfer" pretty much goes against this wireless future.

As to why Apple would do such a thing, I feel that it's not so much that Apple may come up with a wireless solution that is strictly superior to wired, but that they see wireless technology improve to the point where wires consequently have less value. For example, if you are using wireless charging to charge your phone overnight, the value of a lightning port drops because it isn't used as often.
 
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Unless Apple develops a way to make wireless charging just as fast as wired, this is a ridiculous design choice. I’m not buying it.
It already exists. Just because it’s not on the iPhone it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist or the world is waiting for Apple to do it.
 
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So here's my take. We are discussing this in 2020 with 2020 knowledge. Apple is looking at 2022. What will be available in 2022 that we have no idea about.
An Apple provided Wireless CarPlay adapter that works?
Much better Airpods?
A whole new way to wireless charge?
Internet Restore for software?

We can't know if this a good idea today. We don't know what the future has. I bet Apple does.
 
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The benefits of having USB-C on iPhones would be huge. Being able to plug in a display and get crisp 4K 60FPS + pair a Bluetooth keyboard + mouse or trackpad would make these really powerful phones with amazing CPUs so much more useful especially if they are still going to call them "Pro" models. I'd happily plug my phone into a USB-C display to sit down and do some work on it. Especially if you were travelling light.
I like to travel light too!
Instead of bringing an iPad or a laptop; I wish I could just bring a usb c cable, my iPhone, a monitor, a mouse, and a trackpad.
Ugh.
I guess Apple just isn’t thinking about you and me.
 
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I don’t get what’s so exciting about USB-C. Lightning is more than capable. From my experience it’s far more durable too! Lightning does exactly what it needs to do.

I think I’ve plugged my current iPhone in maybe twice in the last 6 months. Everything else is wireless. I don’t think having to carry more than one cable is that big of a deal. I’ve also not noticed any impact on my battery either. I’d be all over a completely portless phone.
 
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