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Comment by Reubachi | Hacker News Reader

My 4 year old (maybe 5?) work laptop has 3 usb C ports. My macbook is all usb c, and my home media/gaming PC has a mix and match.

All my cables I would connect to my home PC/macbook are USB C. IE bluetooth adaptor, sd card adaptor, external ssd, mouse/keyboard, a soundbar etc.

I have several chinesium clones of dewalt batteries/tools, IE lights, compressors etc. They all have USB c output.

"most pc perihpials are USB-A" is not exactly correct for some time now. (not that I'm a fan.)

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That's because you've been making a concerned effort to buy usb-c stuff. The average consumer has way more usb-a stuff than usb-c, even more so when talking about pc desktop users.

I even bet many mac users wished their device had a usb-a port or two in order to not be so dependent on adapters, hubs and docks.

USB C ports cost a lot more, needing extra controller chips and special HCIs. USB-A, especially 2.0, is dead cheap. I would've expected more than 3 though? Standard consoles used to support 4 controllers, plus you'd probably want a mouse and keyboard at the same time if it's also a PC. I guess it's fine if you're assumed to be using wireless controllers.

Not quite right, USB-C ports are generally cheaper nowadays because they are smaller, consumes less material for plastic/metal, more easily automatable production wise in terms of tooling, and scale for them is a lot higher because of mobile usage. You don't really need extra production chips since the console USB-C ports are designed for PD and crippled 14/16 pin versions that only supports the USB 2.0 speed, because the high-speed pins literally do not exist on those.

You forgot all the extra signaling that type C ports have? Nobody wants a type C port that only does USB 2.0.

They are extremely common actually. Why do you think the standard iPhones only does USB 2.0 transfer speed? The high-speed signal pins are simply not there, but the connectors themselves are still standard compliant.

Lower transfer rate means less shielding is needed for the cable as well as the overmold, and enables longer and more flexible cables, as extra shielding stiffens the cables.

> Why do you think the standard iPhones only does USB 2.0 transfer speed?

Because they saved die space in silicon? Same reason the MacBook Neo only has a single USB 3 and a USB 2. It seems that their A-series Pro silicon only has hardware for a single USB 3, and their non-Pro silicon doesn't even have it at all. I highly doubt they are sparing pins from the connector, the complexity of making a special port variant for that far surely outweighs any potential savings.

Serial and PS2 is even cheaper to implement than USB yet I’m happy that we removed those ports in favor of something modern.

Conversely, my Logitech wireless keyboard and trackpad needs this stupid receiver that they only make a USB-A version of.

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

One of the many reasons not to buy Logitech.

New stuff does, but most of my peripherals aren't new. A couple are a decade old and probably pre-date USB-C being standardized.

I am semi-frequently annoyed that my laptop has 0 USB-A ports. At least give me one.

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