For people who already have USB-C phones and are considering switching it means "All of the cords you have right now will still be useful", which is a definite improvement over "All of the cords you have right now are junk you will throw away and have to replace with new cords".

I'm not trying to say that will drive massive upgrades in and of itself, but I can definitely see it being a nice-to-have at the margins and help a nontrivial set of people pull the trigger.

We're about a decade out from them changing from 30 pin to lightning and I still occasionally hear someone complaining about apple "always changing the charging cable" so I imagine it's actually going to piss off the general public.

Much like when lightning launched, mostly I think we’ll get whiny think pieces.

“Why do I have to buy new cables? What about the stuff that uses the old cable still? I need two now?”

I agree it’s the other new feature, whatever they are, that would be primary drivers for most people.

For some people its a deterrent. I talked my coworker into an AppleTV earlier this week and the new remote was USB-C charging (doesn't come with a cable) and he was upset that he couldn't just charge it with any of his existing lightning cables. I tried to explain to him that in no time at all his house would be inundated with usb-c cables everywhere, but he was not happy.

I'd agree, but also reckon there's likely to be quite a lot of people holding out for the 15. I am.