Apple could be about to ditch their Lightning cables for charging devices. The new-style ports were introduced in 2012, in the days before Airbuds.
Their introduction, which was only for Apple products, meant Apple users had to switch earphones or use adapters for the sockets. A company analyst has said he believes that the replacement will be the more common USB-C.
Ming-Chi Kuo tweeted that Apple could make the shift in 2023 and referred to an unspecified “survey” which he has carried out, reports The Verge. The tech website said that Kuo often gets such information from component manufacturers.
In his tweets, he said USB-C “could improve iPhone’s transfer and charging speed in hardware designs, but the final spec details still depend on iOS support".
Many smartphones are currently using the reversible USB-C standard, with Apple adding the port to its most recent iPads and using USB-C-compatible Thunderbolt ports on many Macs.
In the past, Apple has been seen as happier with making iPhones portless - thus fully wireless - than to shift to USB-C. Last month, however, the EU seemed to move closer to making the USB Type-C standard the sole charging solution for low-power devices permitted in EU member states.
There will be an assembly vote in May with the rule possibly in place by the end of the year. This would give member states two years to enact the rules into law - and manufacturers the same amount of time to change their charging ports.
