Apple will drop iPhone Lightning port in favor of USB-C in 2023, claims analyst

Apple is making ready to swap the proprietary Lightning port on its iPhones subsequent 12 months for the almost universally-embraced USB-C, claims firm analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In a pair of tweets, Kuo mentioned Apple was going to make the change in 2023, basing this declare on an unspecified “survey” (presumably of element producers, from whom Kuo appears to get a number of his data for predictions about future Apple merchandise).

Kuo mentioned that adopting USB-C “could improve iPhone’s transfer and charging speed in hardware designs, but the final spec details still depend on iOS support.”

Kuo’s prediction is hardly with out priority — rumors and hypothesis about Apple adopting USB-C for the iPhone have swirled for years. The smartphone business at giant has embraced the reversible USB-C normal, and Apple itself has acquired partly on board, including USB-C to its most recent iPads and utilizing USB-C-compatible Thunderbolt ports on many Macs. Pressure to modify has constructed from policymakers, too, with the EU nonetheless contemplating a proposal that may make USB-C ports necessary on smartphones and different electronics (with the intention of lowering e-waste by standardizing chargers and knowledge cables).

And but, Apple has all the time appeared notably proof against the thought. It’s been advised that the corporate would quite make its iPhones portless, counting on wi-fi charging and knowledge switch, than mar its gadgets with USB-C. And Kuo himself predicted simply final 12 months that Apple isn’t contemplating USB-C ports. In March 2021, he mentioned Apple deliberate to maintain Lightning ports on the iPhone for the “foreseeable future” — partly to maintain the corporate’s profitable Made for ‌iPhone‌ (MFi) program operating, and partly for higher waterproofing.

Maybe, although, Lightning has merely fizzled out. As MacRumors noted in a recent piece, when Apple launched the usual in September 2012, Phil Schiller known as it “a modern connector for the next decade.” Well: it’s May 2022 and the last decade is almost up.