It’s been said again and again. Eventually, Apple is expected to stop being a dick about it and move from Lightning (which only the company uses) to USB-C (which everyone is using). Well, strap in for another prediction of the future. Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reckons the change is coming.
But not this year. Instead, you can look out for Apple devices to start featuring USB-C ports from 2023. Which isn’t all that far away, if you think about it. Still, that does mean at least one more set of iPhones with Lightning ports.
Sailing the USB-C
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My latest survey indicates that 2H23 new iPhone will abandon Lightning port and switch to USB-C port. USB-C could improve iPhone’s transfer and charging speed in hardware designs, but the final spec details still depend on iOS support.— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) May 11, 2022
Kuo posted the results of a recent survey that suggested next year’s iPhone — the iPhone 15 — will finally ditch the standard nobody else adopted. Instead, he reckons, USB-C support will speed up data transfer rates and charge speeds for future iPhones.
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But since Kuo, who has a decent track record but who isn’t spot on every time, doesn’t work inside Apple’s supply chain, we can take this news as speculative. At least at the moment. But the change could well be coming. It might even be forced on the company, thanks to a new EU ruling looking to standardise smartphone charging connectors.
It’s not like Apple doesn’t know what a USB-C port looks like. The company’s already making extensive use of them for its MacBook hardware, dropping its proprietary connectors in favour of something everyone can get behind. Maybe 2023 really is the year the iPhone stops trying to be the edgy kid in class.
