Malcolm Owen
Apple's potential move to USB-C will involve more than just the iPhone, says analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, with other accessories expected to make the switch in short order.
On May 11, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple planned to abandon the Lightning connector for the iPhone from 2023, switching instead to a USB-C port. In a follow-up tweet, the analyst signals that other accessories that rely on Lightning will change ports quite quickly too.
Posted on Sunday, Kuo offers a continuation of the thinking from a few days prior, about a supply chain survey indicating a move away from Lightning to USB-C in the second half of 2023. Kuo starts by offering that the alternative of a portless iPhone would be difficult for Apple to achieve, "due to the current limitations of wireless technologies & the immature MagSafe system."
1. Portless iPhone may cause more problems due to current limitations of wireless technologies & the immature MagSafe ecosystem.
— (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) May 15, 2022
2. Other Lightning port products (e.g., AirPods, Magic Keyboard/Trackpad/Mouse, MagSafe Battery) would also switch to USB-C in the foreseeable future. https://t.co/KD14TgBmtr
Due to this, Kuo is onboard with the idea that accessories for iPhones and iPads that still use Lightning will alter their ports to match a change in iPhone port. "Other Lightning port products (e.g., AirPods, Magic Keyboard/Tackpad/Mouse, MagSafe Battery) would also switch to USB-C in the foreseeable future," Kuo writes.
Apple has already started the shift away from Lightning, starting with the iPad Pro line. The company is also reportedly testing out USB-C adapters and a USB-C iPhone, in part prompted by an EU mandate about chargers.
Charles Martin
Andrew O'Hara
William Gallagher
26 Comments
Personal view…
Wireless charging will be the default for all accessories when lightning gets demised. This will cover the MagSafe Battery Pack, AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max.
The iPad is virtually already on USB-C across the board so not much change needed there just the migration of the final few models in their normal update cycles.
The iPhone is a little more interesting in my mind. I almost never use a cable to charge since having a model with wireless charging so I’d be more than happy with no port, but I know friends who use their iPhone in hotel rooms via the AV adaptor. So I suspect that the iPhone will end up with a USB-C transition BUT perhaps this will be model dependent. Perhaps the Pro models get the port but the non-Pro models don’t…
Thoughts?
So now Apple is no longer allowed to think different. Apple must comply with the wishes of bureaucrats and haters. How long until some other bureaucrats mandate Apple comply with their ideas of design, security, privacy, compatibility, maybe even profitability?