In the past, Apple was happy to make forwardlooking decisions regardless of today's market penetration (remember the floppy to CD uproar? And the removal of DVD drives?). It's kinda humorous that today my MacBook Pro's plug-in accessories (dongles, chargers, headphones, etc) work better with my Android phone than they would if I was totally bought into Apple's ecosystem

If you were to buy an iPhone today you would get a USB-C cable to Lightning. Your iPad would be USB-C. The only independent device not pluggable would be the Apple Watch which has no purpose being plugged in anyway I believe.

Cool, I didn't know that. Does the USB-lightning cable work for plugging in things like M+K and video out?

Yes I see no reason for it not to. It’s all still USB in the end.

> a cable connector that has a massive installed base and that works well for most people

You are confusing Apple users with the whole population. USB-C is ubiquitous and I have seen many new and not so new edvices implementing it, yet I have to lay my hands on a Lightning device, let alone having a Lightning - enabled personal computer.

USBC is becoming standard pretty quickly isn't it? Most major Android smartphones are already using it. I even recently bought a small electric fan which is powered by USBC.

The market would follow their move pretty damn fast.