Earlier this month, we came across rumours of Apple finally ditching its signature notch on the 2024 iPhone. Now, a new tip from Apple Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests that the US-based tech giant could be changing another aspect unique to the iPhone lineup as soon as next year – the Lightning port.
Kuo suggests that Apple could finally drop the Lightning port in favour of the more widely used USB Type-C port with the iPhone 15. This change will perhaps be the biggest for the iPhone lineup in recent years. The iPhone series has always had its own Lightning port, making iPhone users carry a separate cable to charge the phone.
“It’s expected to see existing USB-C-related suppliers of Apple’s ecosystem (e.g., IC controller, connector) become the market’s focus in the next 1-2 years,” Kuo says in his tweet. Check out the tweet below.
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My latest survey indicates that 2H23 new iPhone will abandon Lightning port and switch to USB-C port. USB-C could improve iPhone’s transfer and charging speed in hardware designs, but the final spec details still depend on iOS support.— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) May 11, 2022
Kuo doesn’t detail on whether the change will be exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro models or all phones across the series, so it is difficult to weigh in on the matter for now. Apple has had a history of bringing new innovations to Pro models first, and while the Type-C isn’t exactly a new port, Apple may be seeking more differentiators between its Pro and non-Pro models.
What about the ‘port-less’ iPhone?
Rumours of an iPhone without any ports have been floating around for quite some time now, but if the company is taking up the Type-C port for the iPhone 14 successor, it seems that we could still be far away from the port-less iPhone becoming a reality.
Regardless, the USB-C port coming to the iPhone series will be a welcome change, especially for those in the Apple ecosystem. Apple has already brought the Type-C port to its Macbooks and even the iPads. With the iPhone series also picking up the universal port, Apple users will have one less cable to worry about and will be able to ditch the Lightning port for good.
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