The authentication chip inside each cable drives up the price, I suspect: https://www.extremetech.com/electronics/136947-apples-mega-complicated-lightning-conn

The authentication chip inside each cable drives up the price, I suspect: https://www.extremetech.com/electronics/136947-apples-mega-complicated-lightning-connector-analyzed https://www.extremetech.com/electronics/136947-apples-mega-c... And the video dongles do transcoding, IIRC. https://panic.com/blog/the-lightning-digital-av-adapter-surprise/ https://panic.com/blog/the-lightning-digital-av-adapter-surp...