Hacker News Reader

Comment by temprose | Hacker News Reader

The connector can still remain the same while the internal changes. USB-C is just the connector head. Look at USB4 that still uses the USB-C head.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB4

It's just like we have new modern electronics, but they are all able to plug into the same wall sockets. I don't have to remodel my home.

View on HN

That doesn't really answer the question, though.

Is the USB-C connector going to be the best connector for everything on into the future?

What about mag-safe-like connectors? Wireless? Something you and I can't even think of right now?

Introducing such a connector won't be an engineering challenge so much as a political one. The barriers and cost will be much higher, and quite possibly insurmountable from a practical perspective.

You can say the same thing about wall sockets. At some point you have to make a choice.

And you can always add another type of plug next to the existing one. <- this answers your question

The EU has not done this with wall sockets though. And the idea of just installing two is particularly beclowning.

> The EU has not done this with wall sockets though.

Because Apple doesn't make entire homes, I guess.

> And the idea of just installing two is particularly beclowning.

Why? A connector does not consume a significant amount of resources.

Invidivual countries that constitute the EU today have standardized wall sockets long before EU was a thing. It's unfortunate that they ended up using somewhat different plugs, and if EU existed already when that standardization happened, it would probably have been a single plug instead, as with USB-C.

Italy and Switzerland and France all have multiple variants in common use - all of which are worse than the British standard.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com