Your comment is the kind of anti-apple zealotry mentioned. Lightning was superior to what was out there at the time (in some ways it still is). But, Apple went full in on usb-c awhile back, and has been walking their largest selling lightning product towards usb-c for awhile. It's like everyone just forgot the complaints Apple received when they changed from the 30-pin connector. I've already heard from non-tech friends, "why is Apple is making me buy new cables?!" By including usb-c to lightning with the last couple iPhones and moving other lower volume products to usb-c, Apple has tried to make the switch easier on customers. But yeah, the EU forced them.

Bwahaha.

I own an iPhone dude. I’ve used Mac’s for decades (alongside Linux and Windows machines).

Calling a spade a spade isn’t anti-zealotry. Refusing to see the obvious is…. Something though.

The design of the lightning plug is vastly superior to their other choices at the time, namely the 30pin dock connector they had been using and the only other obvious choice micro usb B, micro usb b is the most cursed connector in recent memory. It's fragile as fuck, I don't know how many of those fucking plugs I've replaced for friends in devices of all kinds.

The lightning plug design on the other hand is as close to bulletproof as you can get for the size and number of connections. The only time someone has ever come to me with a problem with a lightning connector it's been quickly resolved by taking out some very fine tweezers and pulling a bit of lint or dirt out of the female connector.

If they’d swapped it out, oh I don’t know, 5 years ago. Or not required the EU stomp on them to switch, I’d be right there with you.

Same with if they had modern speeds on their non-Pro models.

They’re just being dicks now though.

They really aren't. It's very typical that the next gen 'normal' model is more or less the last gen pro.

That the last gen pro didn’t have USB-C at this point is ridiculous. That’s part of my point.

The other part is that when they went through the design work to put USB-C in (per the legal mandate), they didn’t spend the extra 2c to put a USB3.x or whatever host controller in. Because it would likely have cost them less than 2c to do it.

They didn’t just swap a plug and call it good in a rush, they made multiple new models, that they are selling as improvements and they segmented it so that the $800 model has speeds from prior ancient tech.

That’s being a dick. On top of the ‘being a dick’ of continuing to use their proprietary connector 5+ generations after it stopped being relevant.

guess you can skip over to android where you can live with limited os upgrades and janky pack in software, like buying a random pc laptop at bestbuy.

> That they only switched when forced by the EU is sadly typical of them.

Apple promised 10 years of support for Lighting. They gave it that.

Trivially solvable by including an adapter. Which they do all the time anyway.

They also had to adapt to the EU regulation, which doesn't allow adapters =)

So, the alternative would have been that they'd have to produce a new SoC. This would add cost (both the upfront development cost, and costs relating to the inevitable waste of the old chip). This cost would be absorbed via either lower margins (good luck with that, it's Apple we're talking about) or higher cost device. Approximately ten users would ever notice the difference.

I think Apple made the obviously sensible decision here.