Apple starts shipping first Lightning to 30-pin Adapter orders

Apple on Monday sent out emails notifying a number of Australian customers that their Lightning to 30-pin Adapter orders had shipped, with an expected arrival date coming almost four weeks after sales of the iPhone 5 went live in September.

At least one buyer of Apple's new adapter, which is currently only compatible with the iPhone 5, told MacRumors that his shipment is due for delivery on Oct. 9, more than three weeks after the handset went up for preorder in mid-September.

According to Apple, the move away from the legacy 30-pin plug to the 80 percent-smaller proprietary Lightning connector was required to build devices as slim and compact as the iPhone 5 and products from the next-generation iPod line. To help ease the transition to the new format, which effectively renders nearly a decade's worth of "Made for iDevice" accessories obsolete, Apple is offering the $29 Lightning to 30-pin Adapter along with a $39 cabled version.

As first reported by AppleInsider, the reversible Lightning port dynamically assigns pins and uses only those signals required by a connected accessory, such as audio or USB data for a dock. The advanced protocol also carries authentication hardware, making it difficult for third-party manufacturers to build accessories without paying royalties to Apple.

It appears that Apple's Lightning adapters will be indispensable for users tied to their accessories for some time, as Apple is said to have made significant changes to the "Made for iPhone" rules expected to be presented in November, allowing little to no room for accessory makers to build new products before Christmas.