The 30 pin connector has certainly been available on devices in the past 10 years.

The Magsafe connector has, too.

As has MagSafe 2...

Any apple laptop video out for the past 15 years?

The original MacBook Air had micro-DVI, and then later Mini DisplayPort. Later generations had Thunderbolt. None of these were Apple-only.

The original MacBook Pros had MagSafe, which was proprietary, but DVI for displays (open); later on they had Mini-DP or Thunderbolt The MacBook follows a similar pattern.

So once MagSafe was eliminated, Apple switched to non-Apple-only plugs, though since they were early adopters, it perhaps seemed like it was proprietary. However, Apple did not own (mini) DVI, (mini) DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, or USB-C.

The only Apple-only pugs are/were the old 30-pin iDevice connector and Lightning.

Rest in peace MagSafe. Wish they would resurrect that one!

Practically speaking, they were mostly an apple only liability. Go to any podium with an apple laptop made before retina when they finally caught up with the worldand stuck an HDMI port in the macbook pro, and you will find the DVI/VGA/HDMI cable that everyone uses, and no way to plug in your macbook if you forgot your 3" dongle. During presentations in undergrad, everyone with a macbook had to email themselves or use a flash drive to bum someone's better endowed laptop to hook up to the projector, because no one ever accounted that they would need a $30 dongle to use the video out on their $1500 laptop. IT started buying these miniDVI or whatever dongles for the podiums, but they wouldn't stay put for very long in the lecture halls.

That wide flat thing that looked kinda similar to Samsung's tablet connector? I'm not sure if it was in the last 10y tho...

You’re thinking of the Dock Connector, which was last used on the iPhone 4s back in 2011.

And first used in 2003.

>Apart from Lightning, which was created when no better alternative existed

Gotcha, then why does new iPhone not have USB-C while new MacBooks only have USB-C?

According to wikipedia, the USB-C spec was finalized in 2014, while lighting was introduced in 2012. So GP's point was correct that USB-C was not an option when lightning was created.

As far as whether Apple should now migrate from lightning to USB-C, that's a separate question with tradeoffs on both sides.

I clearly mention new iPhones, don't i?

Yes, and I clearly mention that changing connectors again has different trade offs than if they’d been able to go straight to USB-C in the first place, don’t I?

Apart from Lightning...

>Apart from Lightning, which was created when no better alternative existed...

There is a better universal alternative out there today and yet they continue to use Lightning port in iPhones.

Do you not remember the caterwauling the last time they dared change the port on the iPhone/iPad?

>Apart from Lightning, which was created when no better alternative existed

They could have easily went with USB-C.

USB-C spec was finalised two years after Lighting shipped.

And lightning works with USB-C. The narrative here is supposed to be that we're all certain Apple was working really hard to try and make a universal adapter to their device and just couldn't because it wasn't far enough along?