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Interestingly, it's one of the reasons people love not-Apple. Every Android phone (and most tablets), every Blackberry and every WM phone all use MicroUSB now.

Interestingly, it's one of the reasons people love not-Apple. Every Android phone (and most tablets), every Blackberry and every WM phone all use MicroUSB now. Apple COULD have gone with the MicroUSB/DisplayPort combo port. But then they couldn't have owned the entire experience, and gotten paid at every level...

bunderbunder 14y ago
> Every Android phone (and most tablets), every Blackberry and every WM phone all use MicroUSB now. Not quite every phone. And I still catch my mother-in-law cursing under her breath while trying to mash the mini-USB connector from my tablet's power cord into her micro-USB phone with surprising regularity. That anecdote alone makes me suspect that there's more than a touch of nerds' traditional disdain for non-nerds backing the "they should have just used USB" argument.
bradleyland 14y ago
What about the fact that the Lightning connector is superior to MicroUSB in the following ways? * It's omni-directional * It's much stronger * Once inserted, the cable securely engages with a mechanical latch, rather than friction The only way in which MicroUSB is superior is in cost. A USB cable need not include any microchips, but the Lightning cable must have a chip to detect when the cable is inserted so that the pins don't short when it's outside a connector. I have serious doubts that Apple's choice to use a proprietary connector is about profits. If that were the case, they could have saved a boat load of money developing the Lightning connector and made some slight alterations to a standard USB connector. Having used an iPhone 5 for a few weeks now, I really appreciate the Lightning connector. The only thing I'd appreciate more is wireless charging, but that has its own set of drawbacks. Until I can have both -- wireless charging, plus an auxiliary plug-in charging port -- I'll take Lightning.

bunderbunder 14y ago

> Every Android phone (and most tablets), every Blackberry and every WM phone all use MicroUSB now. Not quite every phone. And I still catch my mother-in-law cursing under her breath while trying to mash the mini-USB connector from my tablet's power cord into her micro-USB phone with surprising regularity. That anecdote alone makes me suspect that there's more than a touch of nerds' traditional disdain for non-nerds backing the "they should have just used USB" argument.

bradleyland 14y ago

What about the fact that the Lightning connector is superior to MicroUSB in the following ways? * It's omni-directional * It's much stronger * Once inserted, the cable securely engages with a mechanical latch, rather than friction The only way in which MicroUSB is superior is in cost. A USB cable need not include any microchips, but the Lightning cable must have a chip to detect when the cable is inserted so that the pins don't short when it's outside a connector. I have serious doubts that Apple's choice to use a proprietary connector is about profits. If that were the case, they could have saved a boat load of money developing the Lightning connector and made some slight alterations to a standard USB connector. Having used an iPhone 5 for a few weeks now, I really appreciate the Lightning connector. The only thing I'd appreciate more is wireless charging, but that has its own set of drawbacks. Until I can have both -- wireless charging, plus an auxiliary plug-in charging port -- I'll take Lightning.