Re:Hands on with USB Type C: Reversible USB Connectors
by notatoad on Thursday September 11, 2014 @02:45PM
(#8304362)
>Micro-USB has an on-going issue with the plugs breaking
i believe this was actually one of the design goals of Micro-USB, and the reason it replaced mini-usb. People treat their devices terribly, and the end of a cable sticking out of a device gets a lot of force put on it. Mini-USB was designed to be tough enough to handle this, and was a pretty robust connector, however the devices that OEMs were integrating Mini-USB ports into weren't necessarily built to a high standard. So people torque their cables and break things inside their devices. Better to break a $6 cable than a $100+ device.
Apple can get away with a strong connector on lightning cables because they can make sure that the internal connector is correspondingly well-built. The USB forum doesn't have that control.
i believe this was actually one of the design goals of Micro-USB, and the reason it replaced mini-usb. People treat their devices terribly, and the end of a cable sticking out of a device gets a lot of force put on it. Mini-USB was designed to be tough enough to handle this, and was a pretty robust connector, however the devices that OEMs were integrating Mini-USB ports into weren't necessarily built to a high standard. So people torque their cables and break things inside their devices. Better to break a $6 cable than a $100+ device.
Apple can get away with a strong connector on lightning cables because they can make sure that the internal connector is correspondingly well-built. The USB forum doesn't have that control.