While Lightning may be a good piece of technology, I think Apple is largely to blame for its demise. Standardization is good for consumers. Apple had control over its fate. I don’t blame them for wanting to collect royalties, but they were the only major manufacturer on the market not playing ball with a standardized port. Yet even their other products use USB-C, and the MacBook was actually an early adopter.
Accordingly, I don’t think this law eliminates competition. It brings simplification to consumers for a simple, boring port that can now be shared with many of their other goods and a single cable.
I genuinely believe that there’s only one real reason Apple resisted moving away from Lightning:
They saw the writing on the wall from the EU over the last few years, and - remembering the way people lost their minds over the switch from 40-pin to Lightning (“it’s a money grab! they want me to replace all of my accessories!”) - chose to wait so they’d have someone to deflect blame to.
Licensing revenue from Lightning MFi is a drop in the bucket. I’m not a manufacturing operations expert, but I have to imagine that the simplification of supply chains alone will nearly offset that loss over time.
Why? Your computers and one of your tablets already have USB-C chargers, so you could just use those for your phones. Further, USB-A to USB-C cables exist, so you could reuse your existing USB-A bricks, too.
I don't see USB-A going anywhere in the next decade or so, especially now that they're popping up in wall outlets and power strips alongside traditional wall plugs (at least here in the US; YMMV elsewhere). Hell, I was at a casino last weekend and pretty much every slot machine has a USB-A port specifically for charging phones (unfortunately, the casino's gift shop was sold out of USB-C and Lightning, but had lots of micro-B on hand - go figure lol).
Probably for longer than USB-A male connectors exist, knowing how fast things usually evolve in said industries :)
This is unnecessarily snide.
Lightning ports have springs that wear out inside. They have issues with arcing, which damages the plug (look at a charging cable that has been in use for a bunch of cycles. One pin on each side will be burnt.).
But hey, the plug part is pretty, so it must be better
Never before have I dealt with such a poor connector. All my usb c is working fine. All my lightning cables work about half the time, need to be jostled. I know if I buy all new ones AGAIN it will sort out the problem.
I don’t understand this take and replies.
Also, lightning doesn’t power external devices. Love that I can run a midi keyboard off my new iPad. The same on my iPhone requires a powered usb hub.
I mean, it's stupid that if I buy an Iphone and an Macbook today, there is no cable in either box that can connect those two