Earlier this week, well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that Apple plans to release at least one iPhone 15 model with a USB-C port in 2023. Now, in a follow-up tweet, he has claimed that accessories like AirPods, the MagSafe Battery Pack, and the Magic Keyboard/Mouse/Trackpad trio would also switch to USB-C in the "foreseeable future." Both the iPhone and all of the aforementioned accessories currently rely on Apple's proprietary Lightning connector for wired charging and/or data transfer. A switch to USB-C would result in a more universal connectivity standard and satisfy regulators, as a wide range of tech products are equipped with USB-C ports, including many Android smartphones and even the latest MacBooks and iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad mini models.


Kuo also suggested that it is still too early for Apple to release a portless iPhone due to current limitations of wireless technologies and the immaturity of Apple's own MagSafe ecosystem of wireless accessories that attach magnetically to the iPhone.

Article Link: Kuo: AirPods, MagSafe Battery Pack, and Other Apple Accessories Also to Switch to USB-C in Future

And so it begins that Apple jump on the USB C bandwagon!

I still don’t understand to this day why the mouse, keyboard and trackpad have lightning.
All of these other products having lightning makes sense because they’re mainly meant for iOS devices, so them using the exact same port is expected.
But the mouse, keyboard and trackpad all come with the Mac, are all accessories for the Mac. They should have the same port as the Mac.
Even the iPad Magic Keyboard has USB-C, it makes no sense

Lounge vibes 05 said:

I still don’t understand to this day why the mouse, keyboard and trackpad have lightning.
All of these other products having lightning makes sense because they’re mainly meant for iOS devices, so them using the exact same port is expected.
But the mouse, keyboard and trackpad all come with the Mac, are all accessories for the Mac. They should have the same port as the Mac.
Even the iPad Magic Keyboard has USB-C, it makes no sense

People have lighting cables from iPhones, don’t need to buy usb-c cables if they don’t want to.

nexusrule said:

People have lighting cables from iPhones, don’t need to buy usb-c cables if they don’t want to.

All these accessories come with lightning cables. If you purchase a desktop Mac that has the accessories in the box, they come with lightning cables.
That doesn’t make it make any more sense

would've preferred for them to keep lightning since most people already have tons of lightning devices & cables everywhere (just update the standards spec to support higher speeds, since that seems to be the main legitimate complaint).

oh well, not the biggest deal i suppose - will just have to buy a buncha USB-C cables eventually i guess... 🤷‍♂️

this would be a nice time for them to redesign the mouse charging port to a position that isn't complete ridiculous...

So much of my stuff is USB-C now that still having Lightning on the iPhone and AirPods and having to keep adapters around for them is a pain. If they really are ditching Lightning next year I might wait to upgrade my iPhone until then.

If this is the case, what charging cables will come in the box?
The argument of everyone has a 5W block means they are shipping a USB-A to USB-C cable, right?

Can’t wait for that to happen! It’s long overdue…

Just do it already Apple...

This whole "will they or won't they" sounds like Ross and Rachel...

🤣

As they should. If Apple truly cares about the environment, needing to have multiple different cords for different devices is stupid. I know they want to make $$ with their licensing of lightning, but come on.

Premium1 said:

As they should. If Apple truly cares about the environment, needing to have multiple different cords for different devices is stupid. I know they want to make $$ with their licensing of lightning, but come on.

The Lightning cables are already manufactured and people own them thanks to all the iPhones and AirPods already out in the wild.

Switching to USB-C will simply create a cable replacement super cycle where a bunch of completely functional Lightning cables end up in landfills.

MasterControlProgram said:

So much of my stuff is USB-C now that still having Lightning on the iPhone and AirPods and having to keep adapters around for them is a pain. If they really are ditching Lightning next year I might wait to upgrade my iPhone until then.

well for others it's the opposite - we have lightning cables pretty much everywhere, multiples in each location actually (bedrooms, living room, kitchen, cars, travel bags, etc.) since most of our devices all still use them (iphones, ipads, airpods, power banks, etc.) and comparatively have very few devices that use USB-C.

i acknowledge that eventually we'll all be forced to switch over as devices evolve and we eventually upgrade, but for now to most people who don't actually need to do a lot of data transfer, USB-C doesn't really offer any real world advantage over lightning (the cable's just used for charging anyway).

it just means that our existing lightning cables will become useless & we'll have to spend extra money buying a whole bunch of extra USB-C cables to place everywhere instead...

It's the endless struggle between:

"I've already got a bunch of Lightning cables everywhere"

and

"I just want to use the same cable to charge my iPhone and my Macbook"

Who will win? Stay tuned for the fight of the century!

🤣

fooobar said:

If this is the case, what charging cables will come in the box?

B4U said:

The argument of everyone has a 5W block means they are shipping a USB-A to USB-C cable, right?

fooobar said:

would've preferred for them to keep lightning since most people already have tons of lightning devices & cables everywhere (just update the standards spec to support higher speeds, since that seems to be the main legitimate complaint).

oh well, not the biggest deal i suppose - will just have to buy a buncha USB-C cables eventually i guess... 🤷‍♂️

The Bloomberg article said that Apple would most likely include an adapter in the box that allowed old Lightning accessories to continue being used.
With the EU issues, it was pretty much inevitable.
I think it's quite clear that, back in 2017-18 when Apple was working on things like "AirPower" and when we first started getting rumors about portless iPhones, they really expected that Wireless charging technology would be better by now, good enough to become the only method.
And my theory is, along with the money brought in by the MFI program, they wouldn't switch to USBC because they truly thought they could go portless within 5 years.
And Now that we're in 2022 and Wireless charging is not much better than it was in 2017, they've finally decided to just face it, make the change and shelve their portless hopes.

Lounge vibes 05 said:

I still don’t understand to this day why the mouse, keyboard and trackpad have lightning.
All of these other products having lightning makes sense because they’re mainly meant for iOS devices, so them using the exact same port is expected.
But the mouse, keyboard and trackpad all come with the Mac, are all accessories for the Mac. They should have the same port as the Mac.
Even the iPad Magic Keyboard has USB-C, it makes no sense

Yeah, and I'm super pumped to keep a lightning cable around for the keyboard and mouse that I just got bent over buying . I know I know, my choice!

xpxp2002 said:

The Lightning cables are already manufactured and people own them thanks to all the iPhones and AirPods already out in the wild.

Switching to USB-C will simply create a cable replacement super cycle where a bunch of completely functional Lightning cables end up in landfills.

Seeing as how the new cables already are USB-C on one end, I don't think it will be as much of a super cycle as you claim. Not to mention people with macbooks, ipads, etc. that already switched to USB-C would already have a cable. Drop the lightning, it's no longer needed.

I guess sometimes people do know what they want before you show it to them. Way before, in this case.

fooobar said:

well for others it's the opposite - we have lightning cables pretty much everywhere, multiples in each location actually (bedrooms, living room, kitchen, cars, travel bags, etc.) since most of our devices all still use them (iphones, ipads, airpods, power banks, etc.) and comparatively have very few devices that use USB-C.

i acknowledge that eventually we'll all be forced to switch over as devices evolve and we eventually upgrade, but for now to most people who don't actually need to do a lot of data transfer, USB-C doesn't really offer any real world advantage over lightning (the cable's just used for charging anyway).

it just means that our existing lightning cables will become useless & we'll have to spend extra money buying a whole bunch of extra USB-C cables to place everywhere instead...

Click to expand...

1. Your Lightning cables won’t be useless. They will still work on all of your existing devices and the tens of billions of existing devices in the world.
2. USB-C opens the door to much faster charging as well.
3. I’m sorry to say that you’re likely in the minority of people who are all-in on Lightning.

Honestly, you can/should be annoyed with Apple for taking this long — Apple duped its users (myself included) for years by creating a whole ecosystem of accessories when they knew Lightning would eventually die. They should have done this 5 years sooner.

Premium1 said:

Seeing as how the new cables already are USB-C on one end, I don't think it will be as much of a super cycle as you claim. Not to mention people with macbooks, ipads, etc. that already switched to USB-C would already have a cable. Drop the lightning, it's no longer needed.

I don't see how one end already being USB-C makes a difference. If either end/port is different, you need a new cable.

Because MacBooks and (newer) iPads are such a proportionally small market compared to iPhones, I can't agree. The best way to avoid environmental impact is: reduce, reuse, recycle -- in that order. A switch to USB-C does not allow for reducing or reusing, and would in fact do the opposite: creating a surge in demand for new cables and chargers to perform the same function that Lightning hardware that people already possess today already does.

I have two iPhones, iPad, Apple Pencil, AirPods, and a MBP; and only the MacBook Pro is USB-C -- the rest all have Lightning connectors. As a result, I've got numerous Lightning cables and USB-A chargers connected to them scattered around the house and in my travel bag, but only two USB-C/TB3 cables and one USB-C charger (the one that came with the MBP).

As a result, switching from Lightning to USB-C in the iPhone, iPad, and AirPods would just leave me with a bunch of Lightning cables and USB-A chargers that are no longer usable to me and need to be replaced with functionally-identical USB-C cables and chargers. That's unnecessary cost for me and the creation of waste as those Lightning cables are still functional, but rendered artificially useless by Apple's choice to adopt a new port.

The point being that I'm certain many others are in the same situation because most Apple devices to date by quantities sold have a Lightning port, not USB-C. The result would be that millions of people would end up with a large amount of Lightning waste that they end up deciding to throw away because they had to go out and buy redundant USB-C replacements, and those Lightning cables aren't and won't be usable with any new devices going forward.

Translation: Whatever Apple accessories you want to buy now, HOLD!!

Lounge vibes 05 said:

I still don’t understand to this day why the mouse, keyboard and trackpad have lightning.
All of these other products having lightning makes sense because they’re mainly meant for iOS devices, so them using the exact same port is expected.
But the mouse, keyboard and trackpad all come with the Mac, are all accessories for the Mac. They should have the same port as the Mac.
Even the iPad Magic Keyboard has USB-C, it makes no sense

Lightning is more profitable to Apple than USB-C.

In general, for anything Apple does that doesn't make sense through a consumers lens, think about the money. Profit overrides customer-centric unless some choice delivers both.

Technically, Lightning is much slower than modern USB (now generally delivered via USB-C). There's no end to "frayed Lightning" gripes all over the internet. Because some things require one thing and some others, consumers have to carry BOTH cable types and/or at least one dongle, etc.

Adopting USB-C on the LAST major product in Apple's mix is a complete win for us consumers. Some of us will seem to object right up until Apple actually does it and then all that pro-lightning sentiment- like pro-notch sentiment ahead of pill & hole- will evaporate, seemingly overnight.

Lightning- like 30-pin before it and firewire before that- has had its run. It's time for either Lightning 2 or to bring the last major holdout product into the Apple product mix's most commonplace jack.

Apple chose USBc over Lightning for Macs long ago. Most iPads are already USBc. Apple obviously LIKES USBc and you rarely see the defenders calling Apple out for 'stupidly' using USBc in the other Apple products where Apple has already gone with it. Apparently, USBc is perfectly fine where it is already used... and makes no sense where Apple clings to Lightning... UNTIL Apple makes the change... and then it will magically make perfect sense there too. Same with 30-pin to lightning... same with firewire to 30-pin. This will be no different.

Having everything using the same charger will be great

I’m not planning to buy any more lightning cables unless I absolutely need one and if I do, it will only be the 2 meter cable as I’ve received so many 1 meter cables included with my iPhones, iPad etc.

Apple 20 watt power bricks will continue to work fine with this transition as they are already USB C

I’m planning to give all of my lightning cables to my Dad once the pro model iPhone and AirPods are USB C as I can’t wait to simplify everything and have all of my stuff on USB C - it will be great for traveling

Definitely would be a prudent to hold out for a $99 USB C iPhone MagSafe Battery Pack if anyone hasn’t already bought the lightning version - hopefully Apple releases it in the fall alongside the iPhone 14