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Reports Say Apple Is Shrinking Its Docking Connector With iPhone 5
jones_supa writes "Two sources have told Reuters that Apple's new iPhone will drop the classic wide dock connector used in the company's gadgets for the best part of a decade in favor of a smaller one. The refresh will be a 19-pin connector port at the bottom instead of the previous 30-pin port 'to make room for the earphone moving to the bottom.' That would mean the new phone would not connect with the myriad of accessories playing a part in the current ecosystem of iPods, iPads and iPhones, at least without an adapter. On the upside, a smaller connector will allow for more compact product designs. Some enterprising vendors in China have already begun offering cases for the new phone, complete with earphone socket on the bottom and a 'guarantee' that the dimensions are correct." Gizmodo writer Adrian Covert says it's for your own good.
I'm sure MicroUSB and other industry-standard connectors weren't considered. For how many years now has Apple been the last holdout with proprietary connectors?
Even if they did they'd still find a way to make it proprietary with something like the charger resistor trick or the headphone recess.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
To Apple that isn't a feature, it's a bug.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
USB lacks video & audio out as well as other feature connectors. So its one custom connector, or several standard ones. Apple wants fewer connectors, so a custom one is used. Not a big deal really.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
It's not about how big the connector is. It's how you use it!
Everything is better with chainsaws.
One thing about the current connector Apple uses is that it doesn't just provide pins, it provides a structural element, allowing devices to plug in standing up. Without this, it will be a pain at least for a docking station to be built, especially ones that are engineered to support iPhones, iPods, and iPads, all of differing widths, heights, and thicknesses, but all sporting the same connector.
I hope this isn't the case, since it means that the whole accessory market, from the docking station that is a part of a new motorhome to the one that is built into a home theater system, to the dock that is part of a construction grade battery charger are all useless.
Why this relentless drive for thinness at Apple? They switched to displayport because VGA/DVI ports were too thick, and now they dropped ethernet from their new retina laptops because the RJ45 connector is too thick. Every time Apple bring out a new iThing, I see the fanboys celebrate how this is the slimmest iThing yet - another 0.25mm shaved from the thickness! Really, once a phone reaches the 'fits in pocket' size, what advantage could be gained for the user in making it slimmer? It's just became some sort of Apple dogma that thinner is better and thinnest is best.
Watch them stop manufacturing the current connector as a way to make us all "upgrade".
It's to remove pins that are no longer used.
there are equally credible rumors [macrumors.com] that Apple will be making an adapter.
To be sold separately.
Summation 2
Forgot to tel but:
In 2011 the global market for mobile phone accessories will rake in an estimated $34 billion in revenue. Apple-approved products—accessories made by Apple or branded by Apple—make up about $2 to $3 billion of that.
from fiscal times
They can't ignore that.
Connectors are obsolete on a device that has at least three radios in it. Charging should be inductive, video should be WiFi, and audio should be Bluetooth. Then the thing would be hole-free and could be made waterproof.
Now this is what Apple should be shooting for in ruggedization.
New standards are always rough on the early adopter
Standards? What standards? Maybe if you stuck to the standards this would not have happened to you.
All electronics stores everywhere overstocked on Apple peripherals to the point that speakers connecting to non-Apple device are hard to come by. This is the payback time! My turn to walk with a gleeful grin, as millions $ worth of equipment finds its way to the dumpsters worldwide.
iPad requires an active dongle to connect to an SD card: ridiculous! N900 requires an active dongle to connect to a TV: completely acceptable!*
Macbook Air requires a dongle to use wired ethernet: bondage! Podunk Clock Radio Corp. has to use an integrated USB or BT chipset in order to get a line-level output: totally obvious!**
I know it's not necessarily the same people complaining, but really.
* Are we sure a phone's USB 2.0 can push an HD image at 30fps? Not just an H.264 stream, because we want to run games on it too.
** Using headphone lines for external devices is crappy engineering -- the impedance is low voltage and neither mic level nor line level, and the receiving device is dependent on the phone's volume setting.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
One word: Accessoires.
Of course USB is "capable" of sending video and audio. But for manufacturers of accessoires, it is 100x easier to implement analog connections than figuring out some data protocols.
Look at the pinout:
http://pinouts.ru/PortableDevices/ipod_pinout.shtml
I'm going to guess with a high confidence that they are losing analog video pins (3), Firewire pins (6, including 12V power pins), and probably consolidating some of the ground and reserved pins.
Another connector redesign issue may be to address some shielding issues - as they move to high frequency HDMI video connections, the original connector may have had some challenges there.
Steve Jobs is making me do it!
Steve, Steve, please stop! I don't want a new, smaller connector! AAAAAAAGGH!
His new connector is going to only connect to my new phone Steve is making me buy!! And no one else's! And I can't stop him! He's already in my house! At my refridgerator, eating all the peanut butter!
And on his new connector, there's a PRIME NUMBER of pins! NINETEEN! It's IIINDIIIIVIIIISSSSSIIIIIIIBLLLLLLLE!!
His connector is going to read all my iTunes playlists and delete all the the old Yes! and make me listen to new Yes! And Night Ranger! And Starship! HE BUILT THIS CITY!!!
His secret UN jackbooted thugs are going to come into my parents' basement, and make me give up all of my mini-USB! and my micro-USB! Even though they signed! They're watching me right now! They're listening, through the fillings in my teeth!
Steve just won't quit!!!! BECAUSE now, he's a zombie CEO! Zombie!
(I'm sorry, but I'm losing it. This is the dumbest thread ever on Slashdot. If you don't like the connectors, get a different phone. Or, you know, like the article says, get an adaptor.)