It really depends when you plan on upgrading your phone if Apple decides to transition to USB-C. If you plan on retaining your phone that is obviously lighting enables, then you really have nothing to worry about at this point. Over the course of time, The transition is coming, however; The real question is, does Apple make the full transition to USB-C for the 2019 iPhones, or do they provide adapter in the box.
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iPhone XS Why does everyone want the death of Lightning?
- Thread starter scaramoosh
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It really depends when you plan on upgrading your phone if Apple decides to transition to USB-C. If you plan on retaining your phone that is obviously lighting enables, then you really have nothing to worry about at this point. Over the course of time, The transition is coming, however; The real question is, does Apple make the full transition to USB-C for the 2019 iPhones, or do they provide adapter in the box.
They want to sell product, but through new features rather than planned obsolescence. I can't make you believe that, though.
There’s a dongle for that. But I’m with you on the benefits of usb-c but I can see apple ditching the venerable lightning cable.
lightning is USB 2.0, and USB-C offers a lot of improvements:
1) port flexibility, like sending a video signal and charging at the same time + a lot more.
2) lightning 480Mbps, USB-C 10.000 Mbps. (-40.000 Mbps with thunderbolt 3)
3) reversible cable.
4) charge power, lightning 12W, USB-C 100W
5) industry wide compatibility
Disclaimer:
I'm not a fan of USB-C as the main port on many types of devices for a lot of reasons, but it makes a lot of sense for a lot of smaller devices like tablets and phones, in my opinion.
1) port flexibility, like sending a video signal and charging at the same time + a lot more.
2) lightning 480Mbps, USB-C 10.000 Mbps. (-40.000 Mbps with thunderbolt 3)
3) reversible cable.
4) charge power, lightning 12W, USB-C 100W
5) industry wide compatibility
Disclaimer:
I'm not a fan of USB-C as the main port on many types of devices for a lot of reasons, but it makes a lot of sense for a lot of smaller devices like tablets and phones, in my opinion.
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Look, you want to believe a conspiracy theory about planned obsolescence. As I said, I can't make you believe otherwise. You do you.
As to Lightning vs. USB-C, though, there are obvious benefits to switching now that clearly have nothing to do with planned obsolescence. So regardless of your opinions of Apple generally, there is a legitimate discussion to be had about which port should prevail, and when.
Looking through this thread a lot of people seem to be forgetting that the USB-C power delivery spec is really dangerously dodgy at the moment with all manufacturers doing their own thing when it comes to the cables and resistors etc.
Remember recently there was a Google engineer who was testing various USB-C cables to see which blew up his laptop and quite a few did if I recall correctly because the manufacturers cheaped out on a certain resistor.
Then you have the Nintendo switch getting bricked by 3rd party docks.
The problem with USB-C is that it does too much especially on the power delivery side with various voltages and wattages able to be channeled to your device, all you need is a cable to not complete the power delivery handshake properly and boom your phone is zapped.
At least with lightning Apple has designed the cable and all its components to complete handshakes and power delivery correctly even when connected to a fast charger, even the knock offs have to copy the Apple specs to a degree or their peripherals simply wont work.
Plus Apple makes a killing on made for iPhone accessories using the lightning standard, they won’t be giving that up any time soon. That’s why lightning based accessories tend to cost a bit more than the bog standard USB equivalents.
Remember recently there was a Google engineer who was testing various USB-C cables to see which blew up his laptop and quite a few did if I recall correctly because the manufacturers cheaped out on a certain resistor.
Then you have the Nintendo switch getting bricked by 3rd party docks.
The problem with USB-C is that it does too much especially on the power delivery side with various voltages and wattages able to be channeled to your device, all you need is a cable to not complete the power delivery handshake properly and boom your phone is zapped.
At least with lightning Apple has designed the cable and all its components to complete handshakes and power delivery correctly even when connected to a fast charger, even the knock offs have to copy the Apple specs to a degree or their peripherals simply wont work.
Plus Apple makes a killing on made for iPhone accessories using the lightning standard, they won’t be giving that up any time soon. That’s why lightning based accessories tend to cost a bit more than the bog standard USB equivalents.
Seems to me like someone sabotaged the USB-C spec, or did their job poorly. But with that said USB-C is suitable for small high bandwith/power devices like tablets and phones above anything else.
What about the apple TV remote? What about the Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse and Magic keyboard? All lightning.
Edit: Forgot about airpods
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And these are all great examples of why consumers have so many lightning cables in their household, for other accessory products in the Apple ecosystem. It’s not just an investment, it’s a convenience factor when you can universally use the same cable for all these products as you listed, including the AirPods. For me, I just prefer the simplicity and ease of use with lightning, and it works so well for me over the years without issue.
And in 1-3 years, it'll be the same except with USB-C cables everywhere. It's inevitable. It will happen.
USB-C sucks though. It’s not as solid as lighting. Instead of switching to USB-C, the rest of the world should switch to lighting. I’m sure they could improve the performance of lighting without changing the connector, sort of like HDMI.
In the transition from the old apple cable to lightning I went from having several available cables to having to worry about a mix (30 pin for iPad, lightning for the phone). And not enough cables at first. The first iPhone I buy with the USB-C will likely be short of available cables at first, and still using lightning for old phones and the iPad. Then a few years later I'll be settled.
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I had the lightning plug break in a battery case, but I don't know where the bit that broke off ended up. It wasn't in the phone.
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I had the lightning plug break in a battery case, but I don't know where the bit that broke off ended up. It wasn't in the phone.
the problem with lightning is its a digital cable with too few pins to be USB 3.0 or above
while there is the hypothetical option apple might be able to jury-rig it by making the outer shrowd ground and then reassigning the pins its just more likely they'd do a backwords compatible lightning 2.0 with more pins more densly together so it acted like standard lightning on old devices but new lightning on new devices.
outside of that technical aspect, I do like that its a solid connector as I have had USB-C cables get bent or something stuck inside (not as bad as USB-A's rectangle but still.)
even if you take all that out of the equation, there licensing to lightning as it's apple's proprietary connection.
so theres no way it would replace USB-C
tack on the fact that the more time passes USB-C is just more and more popular also with thuderbolt3 being the same connector it gives Apple a future upgrade path past USB-C if they so chose
then with so many (including apples official) lightning cable being weak, they get replaced semi-regularly anyway, I'd prefer to simplify my life
while there is the hypothetical option apple might be able to jury-rig it by making the outer shrowd ground and then reassigning the pins its just more likely they'd do a backwords compatible lightning 2.0 with more pins more densly together so it acted like standard lightning on old devices but new lightning on new devices.
outside of that technical aspect, I do like that its a solid connector as I have had USB-C cables get bent or something stuck inside (not as bad as USB-A's rectangle but still.)
even if you take all that out of the equation, there licensing to lightning as it's apple's proprietary connection.
so theres no way it would replace USB-C
tack on the fact that the more time passes USB-C is just more and more popular also with thuderbolt3 being the same connector it gives Apple a future upgrade path past USB-C if they so chose
then with so many (including apples official) lightning cable being weak, they get replaced semi-regularly anyway, I'd prefer to simplify my life
Was anyone saying in this thread that USB-C won’t be here in the future? I don’t think that was my point. I’m simply talking about the convenience factor of what we have now with lighting, and it’s not always easy to transition to change. That’s the nature of anything, not just tech. Regardless, I’m completely open to change, and Apple is the epitome of making changes when others least expect it.
I have a question for everyone who says “I want to just bring one cable”. Do you guys not charge multiple things at the same time?
Lightning is not solid at all. USB-C is very solid.
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It's nice to be able to go to bed, jump in your car, walk into your office and have cables in each one of those respective places and plug in.
And USB type C has its own fees. That’s why you still see micro USB on some devices. Somebody said as much when asked why did their product charged with micro USB over type C. I don’t remember where it was said but I think it was for one of the true wireless earbuds
I’m sorry that’s what they said 1-3 years ago with Apple starting it ironically