William Gallagher
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that market and financial benefits will mean Apple skips USB-C for iPhones, and will also not move Touch ID to the power button at any time in the near future.
Despite moving the iPad Pro to USB-C charging instead of Lightning, back in 2018, Apple has kept the iPhone on the older technology. Now an analyst says it appears Apple will neither adopt USB-C nor Touch ID on the iPhone.
"The market expects the iPhone to abandon Lightning in favor of USB-C and equip the power button with the Touch ID sensor," writes Kuo in a note seen by AppleInsider. "Our latest survey indicates that there is no visibility on the current schedule for the iPhone to adopt these two new specifications."
Kuo understands that there are technical issues around waterproofing, but says he believes there are market pressures involved. Specifically, Apple's Made for iPhone (MFi) program is a profitable business that would be affected.
"We believe that USB-C is detrimental to the MFi business's profitability, and its waterproof specification is lower than Lightning and MagSafe," continues Kuo. "Therefore, if the iPhone abandons Lightning in the future, it may directly adopt the portless design with MagSafe support instead of using a USB-C port."
"At present, the MagSafe ecosystem is not mature enough, so the iPhone will continue to use the Lightning port in the foreseeable future," he says.
This isn't to say that Kuo thinks the technology, particularly regarding Touch ID, is not adequate, however.
"We believe that the iPhone will significantly improve the user experience if it adopts the power button with the Touch ID sensor. However, currently, there is no visibility on the timing of adopting this new specification," he concludes.
Apple implemented Touch ID in the sleep/wake button on the iPad Air 4.
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
22 Comments
Well moving to USB-C would be kinda silly if the goal was to remove the FBI snooping port altogether.
I'd love to see USB C - it would be really nice for consistency both among apple products and across the smartphone market in general but there is very little advantage to switching iPhones beyond that.
For iPhones, there's little, if anything USB C can do that the lightning connector can't, and physically the lightning connector is actually better, IMO. I has detents giving a more secure lock when you plug it in, and since USB C is a coaxial connector there's a center tab on the female connector which potentially can get bent, but more importantly for cell phones, makes it more difficult to clean lint and debris from the port.
Some sort of Touch ID would be nice since we're all wearing masks now - either in the screen or in the button. Apple already has a button-based Touch ID for iPads, so it would seem natural to incorporate that into their phones.
Has anymore produced a Ming-Chi prediction vs reality comparison?
I might be in the minority, but I think the lightning connector is great. Seems to be pretty reliable and that is important. Do I care that it’s proprietary to Apple? No.