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Comment by kypro | Hacker News Reader

Less waste after iPhone users all have to throw away their cables and buy new ones, presumably?

It's OK to make decisions with long-term beneficial impacts that may come with short-term negatives. I'd also wager the majority of iPhone users have USB-C cables already.

Why would they? I can guarantee my parents don't. I guess I got one last year when I got an Xbox controller to connect to the PC, but I don't want to use that one for my phone, it stays with the controller.

I guess if I'm going to replace my phone I should do it soon while I can still use my existing cables with the new one.

You're going to buy an 800 dollar phone to avoid spending 20 dollars on wires?

Straw-man argument, as the law won't require retroactively changing the port on existing iPhones.

Most iPhone users are going to buy new iPhones though, eventually. And when they do the lightning cables they already have are going to be useless and they'll have to replace every single cable they own.

This literally just created a mountain of e-waste. We turned a hypothetical "what about when they switch" into a forced reality.

How long do you think the average lightning cable lasts?

I mean depends. Sure, some people are hard on cables but I'm still using the original that came with my 2017 iPad I'm writing this on.

I don't think I've had any decent lightning cable wear out. The super thin and cheap ones have, but I haven't had any from Apple or Anker wear out yet.

I mean, I’m an iPhone user and have plenty of USB-C cables. And charging cables rarely last that long anyway, so I don’t think this is going to be a big deal.

Um... What portion of your budget are you going to have to spend to buy a couple USB-C cables? Like if you really need, I can probably send you one or two because otherwise I'd just throw them away.

Cables aren't e-waste. Phones are.

It's not a straw man, and you clearly have neither learned what a straw man is, nor really looked at this entire issue.

They'd have to throw away their phones first for the cables to become useless, I'd say the phones are the larger e-waste problem.

There is more waste this year, but in 10 years there is less waste.

Assuming USB-C is the last connector humans invent...

For all we know, it very well could be.

...now, whether that's because it's that good of a connector or because we humans wipe ourselves out before we get around to inventing something better is another question altogether.

In 10 years, we'll be on USB5/6 and who knows what that cable will look like

Not if you already have an Apple iPad or an Apple MacBook that's already USB-C.

It's not going to affect existing phones.

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