> Considering that Apple revises their hardware builds about every four years, it makes sense to move to strictly USB-C now
This would make a lot more sense if Apple had switched the iPhone to USB-C as well. That way, you really could just use one cable for everything. Instead, you need three separate charger for your iPhone, Macbook Pro, and Apple Watch. Oh, and the iPhone comes with lightning-USB-A cables, which means you can't even connect a brand-new iPhone to a Macbook Pro out-of-the-box without getting a dongle.
High-end Android phones like the Nexus 5x, 6P, and Pixel already use USB-C, as do some non-flagship Android phones. It's brilliant - it means I only need to carry one charger for both my phone and my computer, and that charger also can be dismantled if I want to connect my phone to my computer.
>This would make a lot more sense if Apple had switched the iPhone to USB-C as well
yes. it would have. And this is the actual problem there. Lightning is just another way of controlling their walled-garden around iOS and I really hate it for that reason.
But that's beside the point of the port choice of the new Macs: The phones always have a lightning port, so the cable connecting to them will always have a lighting plug on one end.
What they could have done is ship the iPhone with an USB-C to Lightning cable instead of a USB-A to Lightning cable, but then people would have been even more pissed as USB-C isn't that wide-spread yet and in-fact until yesterday was only supported by one single machine made by Apple.
> USB-C isn't that wide-spread yet and in-fact until yesterday was only supported by one single machine made by Apple.
USB-C isn't "widespread" yet in laptops, but it's hardly brand new. USB-C has been supported for a while by other laptops. In fact, Apple isn't even the first to release a laptop with Thunderbolt 3.
I know because Dell's XPS 13 has been shipping with Thunderbolt 3/USB-C for over a year now, and it's not the only one.
In order to add lightning support to a device of yours you need to be part of the MFI program which comes with NDAs, influence on functionality through Apple and, of course, a license fee per unit you ship.
If lightning was purely about the technical advantages it provides, they would have made it an open standard or at least documented it.
There were some technical reasons for not going with MicroUSB of course, but don't tell me that their MFI licensing model isn't a huge reason for a proprietary connector.
Or they could be like everyone else in the world, who have finally given up on proprietary ports and settled on micro-usb, to much rejoicing. But no, they are special.
> [USB-C] in-fact until yesterday was only supported by one single machine made by Apple
Really, have a look at this [1] half-year-old list of 10 non-Apple laptops that have USB-C ports... Of course pretty much all of these have USB-A ports too, because their manufacturers don't have a blind following and actually have to compete with each other.
I didn't want to say that USB-C was only supported by Apple.
What I meant was that of all the devices that Apple makes, until yesterday only one supported USB-C, so shipping the new iPhone not just without Headphone Jack but also with a cable that can only be used with the minority of all their computers would really have been a strange move (plus, there's no small USB-C power brick yet, so they would have had to produce one of those too - or give you their 29W one for free which would probably have been a bit too expensive)
This would make a lot more sense if Apple had switched the iPhone to USB-C as well. That way, you really could just use one cable for everything. Instead, you need three separate charger for your iPhone, Macbook Pro, and Apple Watch. Oh, and the iPhone comes with lightning-USB-A cables, which means you can't even connect a brand-new iPhone to a Macbook Pro out-of-the-box without getting a dongle.
High-end Android phones like the Nexus 5x, 6P, and Pixel already use USB-C, as do some non-flagship Android phones. It's brilliant - it means I only need to carry one charger for both my phone and my computer, and that charger also can be dismantled if I want to connect my phone to my computer.