Analyst claims Apple will drop the iPhone Lightning port in favor of USB-C in 2023

Apple is preparing to replace its proprietary Lightning port on iPhones next year for the almost universally embraced USB-C, claims company analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In a pair of tweets, Kuo said that Apple will make the change in 2023, based on that claim on an unspecified “poll” (presumably from component manufacturers, from whom Kuo appears to have gotten a lot of information for predictions about future Apple products).

Kuo said that the adoption of USB-C “could improve iPhone transmission and charging speed in hardware designs, but the final specification details are still dependent on iOS support.”

Kuo’s prediction is not without precedence – rumors and speculations about Apple’s USB-C use of the iPhone have been circulating for years. The smartphone industry has generally adopted the reversible USB-C standard, and Apple itself has partly joined, adding USB-C to Latest iPads and use USB-C compatible Thunderbolt ports on many Macs. Pressure to switch has come from policy makers as well, with the European Union still considering a proposal that would make USB-C ports Mandatory on smartphones and other electronic devices (With the aim of reducing e-waste by standardizing chargers and data cables).

However, Apple has always seemed particularly resistant to this idea. It has been proposed that the company Prefer to make her own iPhone transientDepending on wireless charging and data transmission, rather than smearing its devices with USB-C. Kuo himself predicted only last year that Apple no Consider the USB-C ports. In March 2021, he said that Apple plans to keep the Lightning ports on the iPhone in order to “foreseeable future” Partly to maintain the company’s profitable Made for ‌iPhone‌ (MFi) program, and partly to improve waterproofing.

Perhaps, though, Lightning simply faded away. Like Mac rumors Observed in a recent pieceWhen Apple introduced the standard in September 2012, Phil Schiller called it “the modern conductor of the next decade.” Well: it’s May 2022 and the contract is about to expire.