Might Apple be on the verge of ditching its proprietary Lightning port on the iPhone, in favor of USB-C? That is the suggestion of Ming-Chi Kuo, the well-known and highly reliable Apple insider, who has suggested that the change could be made for next year’s iPhone 15.
The TF International Securities analyst made his prediction on Twitter, commenting that the adoption of USB-C could improve the Apple smartphone’s data transfer and charging speeds – “but the final spec details still depend on iOS support.”
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My latest survey indicates that 2H23 new iPhone will abandon Lightning port and switch to USB-C port. USB-C could improve iPhone's transfer and charging speed in hardware designs, but the final spec details still depend on iOS support.— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) May 11, 2022
If we are to presume that Apple will continue releasing new versions of the iPhone in its usual windows, the iPhone 14 is set to be launched later this year, followed by the iPhone 15 during 2023.
Kuo said that existing USB-C providers were set to benefit from the move over the next two years, “thanks to vast orders from iPhones and accessories’ adoption of USB-C ports.”
Although Apple has recently adopted USB-C across its other product ranges, the iPhone 13 released last year retained Lightning.
And while the European Union (EU) intends to shortly mandate USB-C technology across all devices – including mobile phones – it wasn’t thought that this would affect Apple, as it had been predicted that the Cupertino firm would go for a portless phone rather than a USB-C one.
If Kuo’s prediction proves to be correct, a lot of users are likely to be overjoyed at the prospect of no longer having to keep hold of multiple chargers due to the varying standards across different devices.
But with Kuo having cited 2023 as the date for the switch to a USB-C iPhone rather than 2022, it looks like this year’s iPhone 14 will be another Lightning one.
