Apple forced to ditch lightning charger in new iPhone
www.bbc.com
Apple confirms new iPhone 15 will have a common USB-C charging port after EU forces it into the change.

Apple forced to ditch iPhone lightning charger::Apple confirms new iPhone 15 will have a common USB-C charging port after EU forces it into the change.

  • BetaDoggo_@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    1 year ago

    They first started using USB c on the macbooks in 2015. There’s no way that it took 8 years to get it ready for the iPhone. In that time they’ve also released several other devices and accessories which have used lightning.

    To me this doesn’t point to a planned gradual shift over to USB c but one that was forced by neccesity on the macbook then by regulation on the iPhone.

    • bob_wiley@lemmy.worldEnglish
      215·
      1 year ago

      Why would the 2015 MacBook’s USB-C ports been forced by necessity?

      Also remember the outrage when Apple moved form the 30-pin connector to Lightning. People were very upset and Apple promised they wouldn’t be switching ports all the time and it was made to serve them for a really long time… as every accessory with a lightning port just became e-waste. I guess Mother Nature didn’t see that.

      • Rootiest@lemm.eeEnglish
        131·
        1 year ago

        as every accessory with a lightning port just became e-waste. I guess Mother Nature didn’t see that.

        I think it’s interesting that you see this as USB-C’s fault.

        If Apple had stuck to a standard connector they would have been on usb-c in a year or two anyway and none of that e-waste would exist.

        Or if they went back on their word and switched to usb-c from lightning after a couple years, there would also be way less Lightning e-waste. What do you think happens to all those Lightning accessories when someone switches from iPhone to a different device?

        Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector is responsible for the e-waste, not USB-C or regulators.

        These regulations will stop companies like Apple making proprietary connectors purely for profit that generate all the e-waste in the first place.

        • Petter1@lemm.eeEnglish
          016·
          1 year ago

          Lol, a cable is barely e waste. The power Adapter is where the e waste is, and those usb A blocks can easily still be used, even if you only have usb-C cables lying around. For very little money, you can buy an Adapter from usb-A to C and you can still use them. I don’t get the eWaste argument on copper cables…

    • June@lemm.eeEnglish
      724·
      1 year ago

      The narrative around Lightning was always that they’d keep it for 10 years and then move to something new, Schiller even called it “a modern connector for the next decade” when it was announced, and at the time it was better than anything else on the market.

      No one who’s been paying attention is surprised that Apple switched this year and not next. I’d love to go dig up my years old comments on Reddit about this but like many of us I deleted my whole history. I had hoped they’d advance the timeline and release the 14 with USBC because of the EU regs, but I’m convinced this was the plan because they waited for the lighting to fulfill its 10 year target (just like with the 30 pin connector) and not until the EU regs actually forced them in 2024.

      When the iPad switched to USBC in 2018 it was a foregone conclusion that iPhone would too, and the assumption was always for it to happen in 2023.