iPhone not migrating to USB-C or getting Touch ID on power button any time soon

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.

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22 Comments

longfang

said about 3 years ago

Well moving to USB-C would be kinda silly if the goal was to remove the FBI snooping port altogether.

MplsP

said about 3 years ago

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.

lukei

said about 3 years ago

Has anymore produced a Ming-Chi prediction vs reality comparison?

thedba

said about 3 years ago

AppleInsider said:

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) programme is a profitable business that would be affected.

I have a very hard time believing this part. Below is Apple's revenue breakdown by product. Cable and other accessories are only a small part of the Wearables, home and accessories category in red. Let's not forget that this same category also includes Apple watch, HomePods, AirPods, AppleTV's, iPhone/iPad cases etc.
So that MFi program is probably just a fraction of that and overall would represent nothing but a rounding error.

My source for the graph below is from https://www.statista.com/statistics/382260/segments-share-revenue-of-apple/.

M68000

said about 3 years ago

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.

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