Apple and USB-C Charging — Is it in the Cards?
This week, we’ve heard a couple rumors about Apple adopting USB-C as a port in the iPhone system. Now, initially, some reports (and most people) thought this meant that iPhone would have a USB-C port in it, rather than the lightning port that it currently has. However, both John Gruber and I remain doubtful about this particular rumor. What I do think is inevitable, and has been more recently rumored, is that Apple will switch from a USB-A port on the charging brick and cable to a USB-C port. I want to explore both why this is an inevitable shift, and also why it’s a good thing.
USB-C is clearly the future of the USB standard. It’s a smaller port, and critically, is reversible. It’s also more robust than micro-USB and USB-A. It also enables faster throughput and more power transfer than previous USB specs. And of course, most critically, it’s newer, giving it a much better chance at making it in the future.
So why abandon the port on the charging brick that we’re all used to? Well, so far, it’s limited iPhone charging in ways that people are starting to get sick of. Apple has of yet only been able to ship a 12W charger using USB-A, which is the brick for iPad. This compares to the 5W that they ship with iPhone, which needs to be kept lower and safer because it get used on the go more often, meaning higher stress and risk of damage. This offers pretty great charging time for an iPhone, but is dreadfully inadequate at charging the largest size iPad Pro. Additionally, it doesn’t charge as fast as the Qualcomm Quickcharge hacks that Android phones have been using for years. Granted, those hacks are not safe for your battery, but none-the-less the fast charge time is really nice.
USB-C can be used for much higher power throughput, which we see with the laptop chargers that Apple ships with the new MacBook Pro’s. Now, 87W is too much for a phone if you like your battery to still hold charge after a month of charge cycles, but you can put more than 12W in at once. In fact, we already can experience this with the 29W USB-C charger initially released with the 2015 Retina Macbook. Using a USB-C to lightning cable, you can put 29W of power into the iPad Pro 12.9" at once. It cuts total charge time from 5.5 hours to 1.5 hours. That’s incredible on its own, but more importantly, it has no ill effect, unlike previous Quickcharge hacks.
Switching the cable in the box from a USB-A-to-lightning to a USB-C-to-lightning cable will also alleviate the complaints about not being able to plug the new iPhone into any of Apple’s new computers out of the box. If you want or need to support the legacy USB-A ports on your old computer, then you could buy a legacy USB-A to lightning cable. This way, customers who are on board with the future of computing will be rewarded, and those who are holding out on legacy technology have to pay the price.
And lets not forget that everything else about an iPhone charger in 2017 is reversible (in the US) — the wall plug only uses 2 prongs, so it can go either way, and the lightning connector is famously reversible. It would only make sense to make the middle part of that apparatus also reversible. Seriously, if you’ve never used a USB-C charger before, it’s a treat with how easy it is.
But why wouldn’t Apple switch from lightning to USB-C? After all, it’s an industry standard port that they’re already using, and can do everything that lightning can. In fact, they even were the biggest influence on the design of the port.
Well, I don’t think they are sticking with lightning just to get the sweet MFi profits. While they make money from that, certainly, it’s not enough to intentionally hold back their product. Also, holding back their products for purpose of profit is not the Apple way, despite what tech media wants you to think.
Rather, USB-C is not ready to be the only port on a device just yet. It’s too big of a connector — look at it side by side with lightning. That really matters when you’re designing in such a small form factor as a phone. USB-C still has yet to finalize and standardize it’s audio specification, meaning that Apple would have to be ready to ship AirPods in the iPhone box, or forgo shipping headphones with the iPhone at all. They’re simply not able to ship AirPods for free yet, and not shipping headphones included is not Apple’s way.
Most critically, USB-C is a more fragile port than lightning. Look at the profile of a USB-C port — it’s got a tab running in the middle. That tab can be bent, broken, or otherwise mangled rendering the port useless. That’s fine on a computer, which generally doesn’t get moved, but fragility and phones don’t mix. I mean, think of all the people who you see walking around with shattered screens. The fragility problem was also something that micro-USB suffered from, which made it a horrible port as well.
Additionally, with the way that USB develops, you know that a mini-USB-C or a micro-USB-C is already well through the design processes, and is likely slated for release next year or the year after. Apple will want to minimize the port switch PR turmoil as much as possible, and will wait to make the change until the new USB-C port is ready, and fixes the problems with the current port.
But it’s definitely ready as a charging brick port, and I’m excited for it. And if you have an iPad Pro right now, you absolutely need the 29W USB-C power brick and matching cable — you won’t regret it.
