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Comment by peterkelly | Hacker News Reader

See Apple? This is where the money is. Not that Rose Gold shit or adding yet another camera lens to the back. And if you want people using USB-C, use it in your phones!

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I guess that's kind of subjective. Personally I'm anti USB-C from a durability standpoint. USB-C is designed to fail on the device-side, whereas lighting and microUSB are designed to fail on the cable side. So I see all devices using USB-C as throwaways because the port will fail.

If Apple gets rid of lightning they lose their durability advantage vs competitors by using a poorly designed connector.

Is there any actual data to makes this more valid?

Especially when currently Apple uses USB-C for their entire lineup with exception of iPhones and iPad 9th gen.

This blog post describes a design choice that would make the USB-C port far more likely to fail than the lightning port:

https://www.appledystopia.com/reviews/usb-c-vs-lightning-pag...

"With Lightning, the connecting tabs are on the cable itself. USB-C has connecting tabs on the port."

This reddit comment thread describes a flaw where the USB-C device-end becomes clogged with dust, sometimes possible to clean out with a toothpick:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/9wdylm/usb_c_p...

This is a reddit post where people are complaining about lightning cables failing:

https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/5cjvlf/durability_o...

If you were buying a device, would you rather the port on your device wear out, or the cable that connects to it?

And AirPods, mice, trackpads, keyboards, and Apple TV remotes. I don't want to defend lightning but this reply was missing a few products that also use it.

No USB-C port i have used has failed. Still working like new on a ~5 year old phone. Multiple laptops, one with a USB-C charging port are also fine.

This is a Hackernews meme until some solid real-world evidence is provided. Not edge cases.

In this (sample size of 1!) experiment, microUSB failed at 8000 insertions device side. USB C lasted beyond 8000 insertions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqtNleXhTRE

This isn't the first time I've heard someone suggest Lightning is more durable than USB-C, but I've not seen evidence of it.

None of them are durable compared to a 'cylinder type' connector. I wish those were still the norm. I declared both my last two phones EOL when the USB connector began glitching during charging due to packed trouser dust and oxidation.

USB C survives a remarkable amount of abuse.

My device have a pretty hard life. I carry them around a lot, do a fair amount of travel, and am fairly clumsy, so pretty much everything ends up falling once in a while. Sometimes considerably more than that.

I'm typing this on a laptop I bought 3 years ago. The bottom cover is bent, the fans are making a grinding noise, and both upper corners of the screen have been dented to the point of damaging the LCD on both corners. It's just had a few too many awkard falls and is about at the point where I think fixing it isn't going to be worthwhile.

All USB C ports are still in perfect working order, though, despite a few falls from a desk with cables plugged in.

I've not had issues with any other USB C devices either. Yeah, I'm sure it can be broken if you try really hard, but it does seem to take a far amount of effort. The port seems very solidly built and I think damaging the cable is more likely.

The USB-C port on my Macbook is worn out after a couple years; it works but just doesn't grip the cable at all and so literally falls out of the port unless I hold it. The same cables are held tightly in my other (newer) Macbook so I don't think it's a cable issue.

In contrast, I've got years-old Lightning devices and the cables still hold strongly in the connector.

Yeah right. As if this affected their sales at all. USB-C would only reduce accessory licensing fees.

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