Comment by Jtsummers

Apple started shipping exclusively USB-C cables/chargers with iPhones with the 11 in 2019. There's certainly a case to be made that they should have done that earlier (iPhone X or even back with the iPhone 7).

It is perhaps worth noting that the USB-IF and Apple had a "complex" relationship for many years, and to this day Apple still doesn't sell a single 1st party device or cable which is USB certified.

There are really only six options:

1. Keep using Lightning

2. Update Lightning

3. Switch to another proprietary connector

4. Switch to a standard but non-USB-C connector

5. Switch to full wireless

6. Switch to USB-C

(1) Makes no sense, they were going to switch to something eventually. If anyone doubts that and thinks Lightning was going to stick around forever, they don't live in the real world. It's so far from reasonable it's not worth considering. Lighting is worse than USB-C for data rates and power, it was outdated years before they made the switch.

(2) Could have made sense but they would have done it earlier if it was in their plans. They could have done that around '20-'21 and given a "Look, see, our new connector is 10x faster than USB-C and fast charges in half the time!" But it would have to match or beat USB-C to make any sense. Maintaining compatibility does means people still get to use old cables with slower charging and data rates for a while until those cables break or get lost, and it means the new cable can still be used with old devices (but will drop to whatever data and power rates they support). It also means Apple has to have, for the iPhone only, an extra team maintaining an extra connector type not used by anything else.

(3) Same issue as (2), but this one has to beat USB-C. And switching to a different proprietary connector means their customers now need at least 3 cables (4 for Apple Watch users, but those folks have to have at least 2 cables anyways since that one is wireless charging only). Users would need Lighting for accessors/peripherals, USB-C for iPad, MBP, and <new proprietary> for a new iPhone. That would go over well.

(4) Same problems as (2) and (3) but at least it's standard. It also has to beat USB-C and what connector would they use that's standard, popular, and not USB-C?

(5) Not viable for the phones. Too many consumers expect their phones to connect, physically, to cars and headsets. Without a 3.5 mm jack that leaves the Lightning, and now USB-C, connector. With cars, unless you have wireless CarPlay (newer cars only) you're SOL for CarPlay, and it's a downgrade to lose that and end up with just audio over Bluetooth. This hurts them substantially in the market and is non-viable. In 5 years, may be a different story.

(6) They already switched to USB-C on pretty much everything else. It opens up every USB-C peripheral (most of Apple's own are already wireless, with Lightning or USB-C to charge, increasingly USB-C). It's the standard connector. It offers fast charging and higher data rates. They already have licenses and contracts in place to use it. They don't have to dedicate an engineering team to support a one-off variant.

(6) is the most sensible option followed by (2). (2) should have happened years ago if it was in their plans. The regulations may have moved up the timeline, but it didn't change what was going to happen.

So what's your argument, which of the non-USB-C options do you think was on Apple's agenda before the regulators came calling? Given that they'd already switched almost every other device in their lineup to USB-C, what was Apple going to do with the iPhone?