USB-C is going to be adopted by the iPhone or not?

3 min readMar 27, 2021

In the past five years, USB-C has become the go-to connector for a wide range of devices. It’s used on most android phones, notebooks, tablets, game consoles, headphones, and even accessories like mice, keyboards, and external storage drives. But when it comes to Apple’s most popular product, the iPhone, USB-C has yet to be adopted. Instead, every model of iPhone still uses a Lightning connector that was introduced eight years ago with the iPhone 5. This has led people to wonder why Apple hasn’t transitioned the iPhone to USB-C. Especially for a company that has a reputation of being the first to adopt new standards. So in this article, we’re going to explain why Apple hasn’t transitioned the iPhone to USB-C, and what that means for their users.

So why Apple hasn’t gone to USB-C

Alright now, why would Apple, the company that adopted USB-A before anyone else? With the original iMac, take so long to bring USB-C to their smartphones?

It’s pretty bizarre, especially considering they’ve already included it in their iPad and Mac lineup. Well, the answer lies in a story that begins in 2010, when Apple was developing the iPhone 5. The device would be twelve percent smaller by volume compared to the previous 4S. Which meant the large 30-pin connector needed to be replaced by something smaller in order to free up space for other components.

At the time, Apple was helping to develop the USB-C standard with other companies like Intel, Microsoft, and Samsung. But the new connector wouldn’t be ready until 2014. Two years after the iPhone 5’s release. So because of the bad timing, Apple was forced into a corner. They could either keep the 30-pin connector for another two generations and sacrifice the iPhone 5 and 5s’ compact designs. Or they could create their own proprietary connector and cause fragmentation within not only the smartphone industry but their own product ecosystem. It was a lose-lose proposition, but Apple went with the latter option.

Apple was ready to implement USB-C in iPhone 2014?

That decision not only cause a huge amount of backlash from users in 2012, Who were frustrated that Apple made all of their previous iPhone accessories obsolete, but it’s still causing them issues to this very day. For example, when USB-C was ready to go in 2014. Apple wasn’t in a position to transition the iPhone lineup a second time, just two years later. They knew they had to stick with lightning for as long as possible, or else they would be in for a PR nightmare. So they persisted, and when the AirPods were introduced in 2016. Apple was forced to use the same connector as the iPhone since the two products were designed to be used together seamlessly.

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So Lightning was introduced to yet another product line. One that would expand into the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, which also had to use Lightning to maintain consistency between models.

Apple other products adopted USB-C!

It’s almost like there was a smaller iPhone ecosystem that existed within the larger Apple ecosystem. Because while the iPhone and its accessories continued to use Lightning, almost every other Apple product adopted USB-C. The MacBook line began the transition in 2015, the iPad line in 2018, and the Mac Pro in 2019. You also have to consider the other controversial changes Apple made with the iPhone…

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USB-C is going to be adopted by the iPhone or not?

Table of contents

So why Apple hasn’t gone to USB-C

Apple was ready to implement USB-C in iPhone 2014?

Apple other products adopted USB-C!

Written by Digital Engineer

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