Are you referring to the 30 pin connector, which did stuff no other connector did? Or lightning, which was smaller and easier than anything else available sinc

Are you referring to the 30 pin connector, which did stuff no other connector did? Or lightning, which was smaller and easier than anything else available since USB-C didn’t exist? You already mentioned USB. Perhaps FireWire? SCSI? Those were all standard. Oh. Laptop power connections? There was no standard until USB-C, which they use. People repeat this, but it hasn’t really been true since they gave up all the custom stuff with the iMac.