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Comment by llm_nerd | Hacker News Reader

Apple's resistance was presumably user inertia. Users had billions of cables and accessories for lightning, and Apple saw during a prior transition that people get really pissed off about this sort of change.

And let's be real about Samsung et al -- before USB-C, they were using the utter dogshit micro USB connector (funfact -- this terrible connector became prevalent because the EU made a voluntary commitment with manufacturers to adopt it). micro-USB is a horrible connector from a user-experience and reliability perspective. USB-C was a massive, massive upgrade for those users.

In Apple land, everyone already had a bidirectional, reliable connector. Even today to most Apple users the switch from lightning to USB-C was just a sideways move.

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> In Apple land, everyone already had a bidirectional, reliable connector

Wait, I thought the Apple 30-pin connector was not reversible?

USB-C has been out for over a decade now. There was only a small window of about two years where iphones had lightning and other phones did not yet have usb-c.

GP meant Lightning. It was reversible.

You are correct, the dock connector for was not.

And they couldn’t go to USB-C instead of Lightning initially as Lightning came out first.

Samsung released the first USB-C Galaxy S device five years after the iPhone moved to lightning (2012 vs 2017). They had Galaxy A devices on micro USB a year later in 2018.

A couple of devices like the Pixel (4 years after lightning - 2012 vs 2016) got it a bit earlier, but no, it wasn't two years.

The iPhone rocking a massively better connector half a decade earlier than the vast majority of the competition is legitimately a thing.

The Nexus 5x (and all models after that) had a USB-C connector in 2015, so did the OnePlus 2 (and all models after that).

Two devices that sold absolutely minuscule numbers are not remotely relevant to this discussion. For non-Apple smartphone users, the overwhelming majority were rocking the atrocious trash that is micro USB half a decade after the iPhone moved to lightning.

Don't forget the USB 3.0 micro-B on the Galaxy S2, the 18-pin connector, the 20-pin connector, mini-USB and various barrel connectors. USB-C was a blessing for Samsung, they could finally ditch their sub-par connectors.

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