Slashdot Mirror
New iPhones To Stick With Lightning Over USB-C, Include Slow-Charging 5W USB-A Charger In Box (9to5mac.com)
For those hoping the next iPhone would ditch the Lightning port in favor of the more versatile USB-C port, you'll surely be disappointed by the latest rumor. "Japanese site Macotakara says that not only will the 2019 iPhone use Lightning, Apple will also continue to bundle the same 5W charger and USB-A to Lightning cable in the box," reports 9to5Mac. "This is seen as a cost saving measure. It seems that customers wanting faster iPhone charge times will still have to buy accessories, like the 12W iPad charger." From the report: The site explains that Lightning port is not going anywhere and Apple is resistant to changing the included accessories to maintain production costs. Apple can benefit from huge economies of scale by selling the same accessories for many generation. As such, Apple apparently will keep bundling Lightning EarPods, Lightning to USB-A cable, and the 5W USB power adaptor, with the 2019 iPhone lineup. This is disappointing as Apple began shipping an 18W USB-C charger with its iPad Pro line last fall, and many expected that accessory to become an iPhone standard too. Even if the iPhone keeps the Lightning port, Lightning can support fast-charging over the USB Type-C protocol. It's not clear if the cost savings of this decision would be passed on to consumers with lower cost 2019 iPhone pricing.
Considering I have a total of ... zero Lightning cables and accessories, but a ton of standard USB-C?
Who cares? You’re not a customer.
As an Apple user I have to agree that there are not many compelling reasons left to upgrade. With many of the older models, Apple brought something exciting that was worth having: good performance upgrades, a convenient and secure (compared to the competition) fingerprint scanner, nice designs, better cameras... not necessarily being ahead of Android competitors, but still good reasons to get a new phone if you prefer iOS like I do. But the last few years have brought very little that I want. The phones are the same except for one new larger model, though they make 'em out of different material since the iPhone 7 IIRC, so trying to hold on to the newer ones feels like trying to hold a very thin wet bar of soap.
Moving to a standard USB-C connector would be nice though. Not enough reason in itself to upgrade the phone, but it would help. Now just be brave, end the thinness war, add a physical home button again with fingerprint scanner, give us a bezel instead of a notch, or just drop the front-facing camera completely (along with the inane face unlock) and add a small screen to the back of the phone for taking selfies. A lot of the recent stuff they have done such as the notch, dropping the headphone jack, face unlock, all feel like they are rather clumsy workarounds.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
The site explains that Lightning port is not going anywhere and Apple is resistant to changing the included accessories to maintain production costs.
Just remember Apple is claiming to be eco-friendly while producing hundreds of millions of unnecessary, proprietary, and redundant connectors instead of using an industry standard USB-C cable that would accomplish exactly the same purpose AND waste less in the process. Not to mention that USB-C can transfer data faster (480Mbps vs 10Gbps), transfer more power (12W vs 100W), be double ended, and work with other devices.
When Lightning was introduced it was an improvement over the truly awful microUSB connectors. USB-C has eliminated any reason for Lightning to continue to exist other than profit seeking and vendor lock in.