Why is Apple so stubborn about keeping Lightning? They were literally the first adopters of USB-C. I cannot for the life of me understand why they haven’t brought USB-C to the iPhone.
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New Images of Rumored 'iPhone 12' Braided Lightning to USB-C Cable Emerge [Update: Black Cable Likely From Mac Pro or Future iMac Pro]
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Non-tech Granny depends on her tech children and/or grandchildren to help get her the right stuff anyways and usually doesn’t have any USB-A chargers lying around to worry about. If she has an iPad, then sure, maybe one, but a good child or grandchild can help with buying a third party mFi charger that has both USB-C and USB-A ports and reduce the number of chargers to just one. Sounds pretty low effort for even the most spud-brained among us.
But sure, let’s cling to USB-A ports, be they Micro-, Mini- or full-size until the end of ****ing time because of someone’s grandma. Sheesh, let’s go ahead and put a couple of serial and a parallel port back on computers because that’s what Grandma had on her Packard-Bell from 1990.
The canard of granny refusing to buy an iPhone because it has no USB-C charger is more a projection of commenters on this forum than based in reality. There are plenty of decent ones on the market that include both ports that are NOT Apple. And if granny is tech-savvy enough to buy an iPad Pro, she’s not going to bat an eyelash and may look at you askew. Just sayin’.
One Amazon $10 plug is not an undue burden for me. I for one would just rather dump the the lightning for good and go pure USB-C for everything. One cord to rule them all.
Who knew there could be such drama over moving to USB C? It is already quite common and they should have moved to it a year ago at least. It makes no sense for their laptops to come with only USB C ports, and then sell the iPhone and iPad with USB A cables.
If a $10 adapter is a make or break deal for you, then you aren't in Apple's target market.
If a $10 adapter is a make or break deal for you, then you aren't in Apple's target market.
That's not the issue. The issue is the number of different chargers and cables you need to carry to charge all your devices. If everything was on USB-C, you'd only need to carry 1 type of cable and 1 type of charger.
Nintendo sold like 60 million Switches.
Don’t go confusing people with facts that undermine their sincerely held complete misconceptions of reality.
/s
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I seriously think Lightning is a more durable port than USB-C with respect to a device that receives as much “abuse” and use in all sorts of environmental conditions as the iPhone. I also think Apple tested it for durability as a replacement and said, “Nope!”
While it might be fine for iPads and Macs, perhaps the iPhone was a bridge too far.
I’m not buying aniPhone until it goes USB-C. My MBP, and iPad Pro have it so why not my phone.
The dream is to not to have a million cables and adapters in my laptop bag. I really do hate it.
The dream is to not to have a million cables and adapters in my laptop bag. I really do hate it.
Actually my iMac Pro came with a black USB to lightning cable — it is used (among other things) to charge the space grey wireless keyboard, mouse, and trackpad. I’m sure Apple would think (and so do I) that a white cable would look silly connected to all space grey accessories. So I think L0vetodream is probably correct...
Hey if you want to be shafted in what is an obvious cash grab then so be it. As for granny not having USB-A ports she can use to charge things then I hate to break it to you, pretty much every dumb phone sold has a USB-A brick most TV’s and set top boxes have a USB-A that can be used for charging things too. Pretty much everyone in the developed world has access to USB-A ports in their house, hell even modern new build houses now have those twin power sockets with added USB-A charging ports integrated.
When Apple are charging £19 for the USB-A to lightning cable
Lightning to USB Cable (1m)
Lightning to USB Cable (1m) lets you charge and sync your iPhone, iPad or iPod to your Mac or Windows PC.
www.apple.com
And £29 for the USB-C power brick
This move would prove to be a nice little earner for them, unless they do the nice thing and knock £30 off the phone for not including these essential accessories.
If Apple weren’t doing it for a cash grab they would either switch to USB-C but supply the adapter like they do now, or remove the adapter but keep a way of charging from the multitude of available USB-A charging devices out in the wild, be that through an included dongle to convert the USB-C - lightning cable to USB-A or by including a USB-A cable in the box.
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Oh and to further highlight my point I’ve been around and counted all the available for charging devices USB ports that I have in my house and I have over 60 USB-A ports on various devices that’s can be used for charging a device like an iPhone however I only have access to 6 USB-C ports and 3 of them are on an iPad/MacBook Air. Now if I were to discount the USB-A ports on laptops and just focus on devices in my house that are static and don’t move I still have over 50 Type A ports to charge stuff and only 3 Type C ports.
Now I don’t doubt USB-C will take over but we are not there yet, a couple more years and I expect to see USB-C more widely available and this move from Apple will make sense.
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same! My OG lightning cable that came with my iPhone 5 is still being used in my car and that one has been in hot, cold, trapped in the seat rails, etc. its discolored a little but there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. I think people are just hard on their cords and dont take care of them.
Hey if you want to be shafted in what is an obvious cash grab then so be it. As for granny not having USB-A ports she can use to charge things then I hate to break it to you, pretty much every dumb phone sold has a USB-A brick most TV’s and set top boxes have a USB-A that can be used for charging things too. Pretty much everyone in the developed world has access to USB-A ports in their house, hell even modern new build houses now have those twin power sockets with added USB-A charging ports integrated.
When Apple are charging £19 for the USB-A to lightning cable
Lightning to USB Cable (1m)
Lightning to USB Cable (1m) lets you charge and sync your iPhone, iPad or iPod to your Mac or Windows PC.www.apple.com
And £29 for the USB-C power brick
This move would prove to be a nice little earner for them, unless they do the nice thing and knock £30 off the phone for not including these essential accessories.
If Apple weren’t doing it for a cash grab they would either switch to USB-C but supply the adapter like they do now, or remove the adapter but keep a way of charging from the multitude of available USB-A charging devices out in the wild, be that through an included dongle to convert the USB-C - lightning cable to USB-A or by including a USB-A cable in the box.
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Oh and to further highlight my point I’ve been around and counted all the available for charging devices USB ports that I have in my house and I have over 60 USB-A ports on various devices that’s can be used for charging a device like an iPhone however I only have access to 6 USB-C ports and 3 of them are on an iPad/MacBook Air. Now if I were to discount the USB-A ports on laptops and just focus on devices in my house that are static and don’t move I still have over 50 Type A ports to charge stuff and only 3 Type C ports.
Now I don’t doubt USB-C will take over but we are not there yet, a couple more years and I expect to see USB-C more widely available and this move from Apple will make sense.
You can call it a cash grab all you want: I see this as an efficiency improvement and waste reduction measure. I (as I'm sure most people do) already have ~10 or so USB-A chargers and USB-A -> Lightning cables to go with them. I also have ~5 standalone USB-C chargers and USB-C -> Lightning cables. One more charger to go in my junk drawer is simply a waste.
I would be fine with them not providing any cable or charger at all. That way there is zero waste. I wouldn't need to buy anything at all other than the phone... others would buy only a cable.... still others would buy both.
It's hard to see how this is a "cash grab" for Apple when there are so many cheap MFi certified charging bricks and cables in the world. If you don't want to buy Apple's... just grab some cheap ones from Amazon.
But when you are in the Apple store buying your first iPhone the only stuff available is Apple own branded chargers and cables.
Yes the tech savvy amongst us will either have the required cables hell I know I do, or will go straight on Amazon and get some Anker cables but if you are not already in the Apple eco system you won’t necessarily have the required accessories without extra spend and on a device that can cost over £1000 that is a kick in the teeth.
I’m all for reducing e-waste and a USB-A brick will be likely be wasted as I’ve demonstrated but at least keep a Type A cable in the box for a little while longer until everybody has a few Type C chargers in their house.
Great. Apple sells 40 million iPhones per quarter. The vastness of the iPhone market is not remotely comparable.
I don't think you could be more wrong if you tried.
You are not like most people. You're like most people that read articles about iPhone cables.
You have no way of demonstrating how chargers that you receive but don't need are in anyway meaningful waste. None whatsoever. They are not worthless. They have potential value. You can use them, give them to other people who will use them, or even bundle them together and sell them since they have actual value. None of that is wasteful.
The only one who wins here is Apple by removing $40 worth of accessories, producing less expensive packaging, and shipping a couple more units people pallet, while charging you the same amount for the iPhone.
Hey if you want to be shafted in what is an obvious cash grab then so be it. As for granny not having USB-A ports she can use to charge things then I hate to break it to you, pretty much every dumb phone sold has a USB-A brick most TV’s and set top boxes have a USB-A that can be used for charging things too. Pretty much everyone in the developed world has access to USB-A ports in their house, hell even modern new build houses now have those twin power sockets with added USB-A charging ports integrated.
When Apple are charging £19 for the USB-A to lightning cable
Lightning to USB Cable (1m)
Lightning to USB Cable (1m) lets you charge and sync your iPhone, iPad or iPod to your Mac or Windows PC.www.apple.com
And £29 for the USB-C power brick
This move would prove to be a nice little earner for them, unless they do the nice thing and knock £30 off the phone for not including these essential accessories.
If Apple weren’t doing it for a cash grab they would either switch to USB-C but supply the adapter like they do now, or remove the adapter but keep a way of charging from the multitude of available USB-A charging devices out in the wild, be that through an included dongle to convert the USB-C - lightning cable to USB-A or by including a USB-A cable in the box.
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Oh and to further highlight my point I’ve been around and counted all the available for charging devices USB ports that I have in my house and I have over 60 USB-A ports on various devices that’s can be used for charging a device like an iPhone however I only have access to 6 USB-C ports and 3 of them are on an iPad/MacBook Air. Now if I were to discount the USB-A ports on laptops and just focus on devices in my house that are static and don’t move I still have over 50 Type A ports to charge stuff and only 3 Type C ports.
Now I don’t doubt USB-C will take over but we are not there yet, a couple more years and I expect to see USB-C more widely available and this move from Apple will make sense.
I have both a 30w and an 87w USB-C brick I can use to charge my iPhone or I still the originals that came with my devices. I don’t plug my iPhone into some mystery USB-A port on my TV and hope for the best. I don’t use all Apple chargers, some are Anker, but I don’t use some cheap charger picked up from the convenience store either. Also, granny isn’t going to plug in her brand new iPhone to her TV, she’s going to get the right part, be it Apple or another brand.
The last thing I would want to do is simply plug in to a USB-A port out in the wild. I’ll look for an electrical outlet, but sure as heck not a USB-A port just hanging around.
My parents recently bought iPhone SE’s, of which I would have had no problem if they had left the off the charger. Apple wouldn’t on their cheaper phones, because the majority of switchers must be choosing the 11, XR or SE and not the pro and ProMax. Granny certainly isn’t going to go Pro or ProMax and if they do, they have enough disposable income to not worry about a $20-$30 USB-C charger or Qi charging mat.
50 ports? Do you really need 50? I have one USB-C and three USB-A for one iPhone and six iPads. 50 seems excessive, even to me.
USB-A people keep trying to kick the USB-C can down the road just “a couple more years”, which is hilarious. USB-A is losing ground and we’re past that threshold. It’s only blind inertia and flat out laziness that USB-C is not in more devices. I don’t care about cheap devices as those will always take forever since no company wants to incur additional R&D to make the move. So much has moved already (Nintendo Switch, USB audio interfaces, Macs and PCs, DSLRs, accessories, battery packs, et al.) and that number is just going to keep climbing. USB-C is now ascendant while USB-A is finally starting to go away. Apple is simply pushing the envelope a bit more than others as they are expected. No one is getting shafted.
Or Apple could just put a d@mn USB-C port on the phone and end this Lightning nonsense.
Modern houses have twin sockets with twin USB C. I couldn’t justify doing the outlets with USB A since it is on its way out. They also make outlets with one USB C and one USB A.
I’m not against USB-C taking over I’m all for it, but right now it does not have the market penetration for Apple to supply a USB-C - Lightning rather than a USB-A - Lightning and not including the brick without it looking like a greedy cash grab.
Either include the brick and go USB-C or leave a way to connect to a USB-A port at least till the point whereby everything comes with USB-C.
As for PC’s moving to USB-C I think you’ll find that most of the cheaper models only come with USB-A and even the more expensive models might only have 1 or 2 Type C ports vs 3 or 4 Type A’s, again as I said before eventually Type-C will be king and it will be PC’s with 3 or 4 type C’s and one type A but right now this year when this rumoured change is happening with the iPhone it is not the case yet.
As for the Switch it does have a Type-C but its dock only has Type-A’s for accessories with a C for power input.
As for the 60 USB ports I am counting ports on laptops/tv’s/games consoles/router etc just to highlight how widely available Type-A charging is vs Type-C, now my house does have more tech in it than PC World but even with all that tech I own Type-C just isn’t that widely used yet.
I will repeat above though I am all for Type-C to take over fully, you could pretty much replace all your modern cables with Type-C for charging and even as a replacement for HDMI which would make life very simple, however that is still a few years off as of yet I reckon.
They already made the switch to USB cable/charger last year (or earlier) as evidenced by the what came in the box with my iPhone 11.
Not sure where you are located but I just searched for those power sockets with USB ports on Screwfix which is a UK based trade supplier who supply to builders. They had 113 different sockets but only 14 of them had a Type C. I had the search set to most popular first and the first with a Type C was 9th.
Now that is one shop, but does again highlight my point that Type-A is still king right now, Type-C will take over but its not there yet.
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My 11 came with a Type-A cable and charger.
E-waste is effectively created when the charger is produced, not when it's disposed of. Every charger produced eventually generates waste, the only thing that can change after the fact is the timing of its disposal. Apple choosing not to include a charger in the box does not generate more waste as the most effective method of waste reduction is not making the disposable good in the first place... Apple is absolutely looking to profit off the transition to USB-C fast chargers, but they are also creating less waste than they would be if they included a charger in the box. That's just how how waste works, you can only throw things out if they exist in the first place.
More like the perpetuation of inconvenience and frustration on the side of the consumer.
I would surely welcome USB-C on the new iPhone - as someone said; one cable to rule them all ... but I think I'm in the minority when I say that the lightning connector just stays in place better. When I plug in the lightning 18W brick the cable just clicks, I can still use it without the worry of it being unplugged. I don't have a USB-C iPad to compare it to, but again with my lightning cable on the iPad it's no problem. Traveling with the lightning cable is easier too especially on planes - no need to worry you'll unplug it accidently. MacBook Pro, and gfs MacBook Air with a USB-C on the other hand the cable(s) don't seem as secure. Sometimes bumping into the cable, or just moving it unplugs it. We have plenty of original USB-C cables purchased from Apple and they all have the same "issue" ... it even happened at the Apple store when I brought it in for service using their cable ... could be just us? or?