Apple is embarking on a permanent crusade against unnecessary ports, and it appears the iPhone’s Lightning port is next on the list.
In many ways, it makes a lot of sense for Apple to drop the Lightning port of the iPhone. To begin with, this is one additional component that needs to be added. It takes up space on the iPhone, and it is a hole through which water and other random dirt can enter the iPhone.
This is also one less part to carry out.
But these are all things that benefit Apple. What about you, as the person who paid big bucks for your iPhone?
What is life like after the Lightning Gate?
This means that everything you own that is plugged into the Lightning port will be waste. Cables, chargers, memory sticks, FLIR IR cameras, docks, drone controllers.
Everything.
I can not imagine how many lightning accessories there are in nature. Over the years, I have handled many hundreds, and I currently have dozens on my desk and on the shelves around me.
Getting rid of the Lightning port will cause a large amount of e-waste overnight.
And Apple knows it.
How do we know Apple knows this?
Because this year last year used this exact reason as a defense against the pressure of the European Commission to switch to USB-C. Apple claims that switching from Lightning to USB-C would “create an unprecedented amount of electronic waste” and “disrupt hundreds of millions of active devices and accessories used by our European customers.”
Well, so will the lightning gate fall.
This will create a lot of waste.
So what has changed in a year?
It’s possible that Apple may be making a wireless dongle available that serves as a bridge, but who knows.
And it probably won’t be cheap.
The downside to this is that Apple, since iPhones have a long lifespan, can argue that these accessories are not going to age overnight. In my experience, although iPhones have a long lifespan, I do not see the same for accessories.
Apple may try to claim that the switch it makes offsets any waste. Not sure if I would buy it to be honest.
Let’s also note that wireless charging is very expensive in terms of electricity. Terrible.
And wireless charging can never be as efficient as a wire.
I also heard people’s concerns about not being able to put iPhones in recovery mode without a Lightning port, and that would mean you’re going to the Apple Store. This is indeed another concern. The other side is that it will make the iPhone much more resistant to the jailbreak or access to the data without the consent of the user.
What do you think of Apple dropping the Lightning gateway?