The USB-C iPhone Backlash Is Coming
Consistency, reliability, and familiarity are features
With the newly announced iPhone 15s, iPhones are finally abandoning Apple’s proprietary Lightning port for charging and data transfer and moving to USB-C. The tech press and tech enthusiasts have been calling for this move for nearly a decade, citing the clear advantages of a universal port, cords, and chargers that work with countless devices from different brands, capable of faster charging and data transfer than Lightning provides with its USB 2.0 speeds. And for the most part, I agree — USB-C has a lot of advantages over Lightning, and iPhones with USB-C may have been inevitable even if the European Union hadn’t forced Apple’s hand.
But iPhones moving to USB-C isn’t the total, unequivocal win the tech press and enthusiasts are so convinced that it is, at least not in 2023. And because of that, they are unlikely to be ready for or fully comprehend the backlash the abandonment of Lightning will cause for tens, if not hundreds of millions of iPhone users.
See, back in October 2020, I wrote a post called “Quit Complaining That iPhones Should Switch to USB-C”. In that post, I cited the fact that iPhones moving to USB-C would create mountains of e-waste, would cost a lot for consumers to replace cords and chargers, that USB-A chargers were far more ubiquitous than USB-C ones, and…
