You'll never get Apple to do that though. They didn't with USB-3, they didn't with mouse/keyboard, they won't put them on their cables. And since they're the premium brand, everyone else will have to follow them.

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted, those examples are all absolutely true. There's no chance of Apple complying with a spec which doesn't meet their sense of industrial design (which there's no way this would).

I will say, they're not alone. Look at Razer, for instance. Electric green is not exactly a part of the USB 3 standard.

In which case Apple is welcome to deal with their users being confused about cables. I see this as how the market is supposed to work.

If it's a cable property, then Apple can do whatever it wants with its cables. And everyone else can do what they want with theirs.

But if Apple can do it then so will all the cheap cable manufacturers and everyone else will be confused too.

Some manufacturers following an indicator spec is better than what we have now.

Which is a great solution if all you have are Apple cables, but colored rings fall off or get broken. It's like the US solution to healthcare: "don't be poor", it's not practical in real-world sense. People are going to buy (and make) whatever shit cable they want and regulations and standards don't mean a thing.

You could colour the plastic inside the connector. That would be invisible once plugged which would probably suit Apple etc.