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Comment by windexh8er | Hacker News Reader

Its 2019 and Apple is still milking their largest subset of buyers on the Lightning tax. In my opinion Apple has some fantastic engineering still happening but the blatant disregard of USB-C shows the true motives. While I understand there are likely challenges with switching the iPhone Pro doesn't fit, at all, with the connectivity solutions in the MacBook Pro or iPad Pro line. Its really unfortunate a lot of what Apple showed today are derivatives of things Android manufacturers have been doing for years. Then again there's nothing to be upset about, the majority of this was public for quite a while.

Keep in mind USB-C came to Android on the Nexus line in October of 2015.

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The thing is a lot of Apple product owners have a lot of Lightning cables and chargers already. For them, they're not paying any sort of tax. Changing to USB-C would be a tax for these people as they'd have to buy all new cables.

Yes, in a tech forum the majority of us have many USB-C devices. But I personally don't have that critical mass of USB-C devices compared with Lightning or microUSB.

I'd buy this if Apple didn't start doing USB-C on their computers 3-4 years ago, If USB-C isn't where you want to go as Apple, fine, but be consistent across the product lines.

You can't power a laptop from a Lightning cable. Lightning came out 7 years ago to replace the 30-pin connector.

It makes sense for the laptops to replace their proprietary power ports with USB-C but they'd need a time machine to be consistent across product lines and not screw somebody over.

Lightning tax? Have you tried finding charging options for USB-C after forgetting yours in an airport yet?

Every device I've bought in the last couple of years has USB-C. Most devices powered externally today, in the tech field have gone to USB-C. I'm not sure what airports you traverse but I've yet to be in an airport in the last two years that doesn't sell some sort of USB-C charger. That and since most all of my devices charge via that method that's what I mainly carry.

What I mean by Lightning tax is the literal Lightning tax. Lightning is a proprietary connector that needs to be licensed by Apple and of which Apple makes revenue from. [0] So by Apple keeping it around on their flagship device Apple continues to profit from accessories continuing to be made.

I'm curious why you think it's great for Apple buyers that tote MacBook Pro, iPad Pro and iPhone to need two types of cable for charging and connectivity?

Remember FireWire? It was great for it's time but saw it's day well before Apple finally dropped it. Lightning has seen it's fate. A flagship phone, with the price Apple commands, should have a current generation port.

[0] https://mfi.apple.com/MFiWeb/getFAQ.action

I’ve had phones with microUSB, USB-C and Lightning within the past 5 years. Oddly enough I still have a few things which take a microUSB cable including a book light.

At the end of the day, having different cables is a slight inconvenience but not terrible. I know with both USB-C and Lightning I’m tired of cleaning the connectors. I’m not going to say I want them to go away, but Qi charging ftw! Renders this entire debate almost entirely moot, and lint isn’t an issue.

Replacing one annoying connector with another isn’t an upgrade, it’s a lateral move at best, and a downgrade for people with iPhones today that are well invested in Lightning peripherals.

USB-C is on its best day, equal to Lightning for the purposes of shifting electrons, and is in some ways worse because the design of the connector is more fragile on the female end, I.e. the phone, rather than the more easily replaced cable. The day Apple switches over to USB-C is the day the connector is meaningless. It will probably happen, but today is not that day.

> USB-C is on its best day, equal to Lightning for the purposes of shifting electrons

I haven't seen exact specs for a Lightning cable but I've seen it suggested that it tops out at 12W.

In theory USB-C can shift 100W (20V * 5A) so, again in theory, it would allow much fast charging if the phone could support that.

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