The Lightning interface was years ahead of the competition when it was first introduced, but the technology is now obsolete.
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USB-C instead of Lightning? Apple has two years to do this
Apple introduced Lightning with the iPhone 5 in September 2012. The reason for this was that Cupertino had gradually lost patience with the USB consortium and preferred to use its own fast port instead of further developing USB. It was a right decision back then, Lightning was faster than the previous 30-pin dock, the connector is still smaller than the competition, and as far as we know it was one of the first foolproof connectors on the market: you could plug in either way around, the connection still worked. Since then, however, a lot has happened, USB-C as a connector form is ubiquitous, even Apple supports USB 4 with its newer Macs from iMac 24 inch upwards. In addition, there is increasing pressure from the EU, which wants to implement a uniform plug based on USB-C.
Lightning should get faster
As now the leaker
“Leaks Apple Pro”
claims that Apple will still rely on Lightning, at least for the iPhone 14. However, the engineers are working on at least modernizing the old connection somewhat and supporting USB 3 speeds. At the moment, data is transferred via Lightning to the iPhone (or some iPads) at USB 2 speed, i.e. a maximum of 480 MB per second, USB 3 supports almost 4800 MB/s, the second generation of USB 3.1 – 10 Gbits per second, Apple’s co-development Thunderbolt (3.4) up to 40 Gbits per second. At the same time, Apple is building more and more internal memory and ever more modern cameras into its iPhones, so that film files of several gigabytes in size are not uncommon, even for amateur photographers and filmmakers. Lightning forms the literal bottleneck that prevents this data from being transferred quickly to other storage media or computers.
In the same article, the leaker speculates as to why Apple has been vehemently opposed to switching to USB for iPhones for years. Finally, the modern iPads have a USB-C (iPad Air) or Thunderbolt port (iPad Pro). Accordingly, Apple earns quite a bit of money with the license fees that the accessory manufacturers pay. Apple has no intention of forgoing these sales. If anything, according to the leaker, manufacturers switch directly from Lightning to Magsafe as a data transfer method, but even in this case the manufacturers have to pay their licenses to Apple because Magsafe is also proprietary.
Tag: iphone design, iphone 14, apple iphone, iphone release