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Why couldn't it have been made to work in either orientation? Backwards compatibility? Apple patents?

It is backwards compatible with micro usb cables.

This being said, the backwards compatibility of the next generation will look fearsome.

It could have been backwards compatible and reversable—two micro usb ports next to each other, rotated 180 degrees.

That seems like a great idea, but then new cases would have to be accounted for. For example, what happens when someone plugs two micro usb cables into the one micro usb3 connector? Dealing with that would add complexity and therefore expense and size.

It could but the connector would end up costing more (or would require a smarter circuit).

Typical consumer electronics: save 5 cents per unit, and force the end user to spend orders of magnitude more than that in lost time fumbling with the thing.

Of course, I don't blame the manufacturers. It is ultimately the buyers themselves who make this choice, by preferring price over almost anything else.

I.e. Lightning.

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