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Apple are definitely the bad guys in this, at least in Europe. They were the only ones who fought against the 2011 request to align charging ports (every single

Apple are definitely the bad guys in this, at least in Europe. They were the only ones who fought against the 2011 request to align charging ports (every single other manufacturer agreed to switch to micro-USB). It's a shame that it took us 10 years to go from "please do it" to "do it", but here we are at last

orev 5y ago
Back the, the options were micro-USB or Lightning, and given those choices Lightning was the far better option.
- namdnay 5y ago
  But isn’t lightning proprietary? The others wouldn’t have been able to align themselves on it
  - simonh 5y ago
    The others couldn't all standardise of Micro USB anyway. It didn't carry enough power at the time to charge tablets with their bigger batteries and higher wattage power requirements. That's why Samsung used proprietary connectors on their tablets. Apple would have had to retain Lightning for the iPad anyway, forcing Apple owners like myself to have a mix of Lightning and Micro USB for our tablets and phones until Micro USB caught up (and then became incompatible with itself). Wonderful, thanks guys!
simonh 5y ago
Apple had already had Lightning out for 2 years when the new rules came in 2014, I already had four relatively new devices in the house with lightning ports by then. Compared to Micro USB, Lightning is more durable, is fully symmetrical, has built in authentication. At the time in 2014 it also had faster charging (12W vs 8W), faster transfer speeds, and did streamed video and audio all of which Micro USB got several years later. The charging power issue was a big deal because Lightning was suitable for tablets with bigger batteries and higher power ratings (two of our lightning devices in 2014 were iPads). This his is why the Galaxy tablets at the time used a proprietary connector. So Apple would have had to keep Lightning anyway for the iPad. Lightning has also always been more consistent, several variants of Micro USB connectors and cables are incompatible. So much for standardisation. So reverting to Micro USB at the time would have been a significant regression in capability, and wouldn't even have got rid of Lightning because it would still have been needed for the iPad. The whole situation would have been an utter debacle.

orev 5y ago

Back the, the options were micro-USB or Lightning, and given those choices Lightning was the far better option.

namdnay 5y ago
But isn’t lightning proprietary? The others wouldn’t have been able to align themselves on it
- simonh 5y ago
  The others couldn't all standardise of Micro USB anyway. It didn't carry enough power at the time to charge tablets with their bigger batteries and higher wattage power requirements. That's why Samsung used proprietary connectors on their tablets. Apple would have had to retain Lightning for the iPad anyway, forcing Apple owners like myself to have a mix of Lightning and Micro USB for our tablets and phones until Micro USB caught up (and then became incompatible with itself). Wonderful, thanks guys!

simonh 5y ago

Apple had already had Lightning out for 2 years when the new rules came in 2014, I already had four relatively new devices in the house with lightning ports by then. Compared to Micro USB, Lightning is more durable, is fully symmetrical, has built in authentication. At the time in 2014 it also had faster charging (12W vs 8W), faster transfer speeds, and did streamed video and audio all of which Micro USB got several years later. The charging power issue was a big deal because Lightning was suitable for tablets with bigger batteries and higher power ratings (two of our lightning devices in 2014 were iPads). This his is why the Galaxy tablets at the time used a proprietary connector. So Apple would have had to keep Lightning anyway for the iPad. Lightning has also always been more consistent, several variants of Micro USB connectors and cables are incompatible. So much for standardisation. So reverting to Micro USB at the time would have been a significant regression in capability, and wouldn't even have got rid of Lightning because it would still have been needed for the iPad. The whole situation would have been an utter debacle.