What is the name of a proprietary connector type used by Apple mobile devices?

For as long as I can remember, people have complained about Apple’s use of proprietary connectors — “Why don’t Apple use micro-USB? Obviously they’re doing it for the money!” — but none of them seem to have actually looked into why Apple would choose to use a proprietary connector, other than the obvious economic benefits, which I fully acknowledge exist. Those economic benefits are not the only reason Apple would choose to use a proprietary connector, though. No USB connector has been “smart” enough, capable enough, to do what Apple wanted in one connector, perhaps until USB-C (also referred to as USB Type-C).

Apple introduced their 30-pin Dock Connector in 2003, with their third iPod. It was named so because it consisted of 30 “pins” over which it could communicate or draw power through. Perhaps most importantly, was usable with either a Firewire (also known as IEEE 1394) or USB connector on the other end of the cable. Until then, iPods were only usable with FireWire, a decision made because Apple basically made FireWire, it was much faster than USB 1.1 — the speed of USB generally in use at the time, and would still be faster than USB 2.0, which started hitting the market around the same time. But FireWire connectivity was limiting for a number of reasons. Windows PCs almost universally shunned FireWire. There were some exceptions — Sony put FireWire ports on their computers, but named them i.Link, for example. So a universal connector which would allow Mac users the faster transfer speeds of FireWire, and Windows users the ability to communicate with an iPod at all was a necessity.

Left: Mini-USB-B connector

The 30-pin connector allowed for far more functionality than just a Mini-USB connector was capable of offering. USB offered four pins at the time — two for all data, two for power. 30-pin allowed for data pins, FireWire power pins, USB power pins, audio-out pins etc. It was a mish-mash of analogue and digital communication pins. Along with Apple’s Made for iPod programme, it also allowed for a whole ecosystem of products which used the 30-pin, making customers 100% certain that this product was able to support the iPod and could be smarter in communicating with them — allowing direct control of the iPod, extending its capability with FM receivers and transmitters, and a variety of other accessories. No drivers necessary. Plus — and probably one of the biggest benefits in later years— it later supported video and digital audio out. 30-Pin was a universal port and had pretty much all the features you could want in a bespoke connector.

Then, 30-Pin was consigned to the past when Lightning hit the market with the iPhone 5 in 2012. Why did Apple need to replace 30-Pin? Why did Apple need to create another new connector? Well, for a start, the iPhones and iPads (and, iPods, I guess) no longer needed 30 pins over which to communicate or charge. Many of the pins in the 30-Pin connector had been deprecated — Apple had prepared for dropping FireWire charging and syncing support as early as 2005, finally sealing the deal with the iPods released in 2008 — or were simply never used, having been reserved for future use and then never implemented (look here for the pinout). That’s physical space which, in devices already so constrained for space, could be better used — think more battery, more sensors etc. So something smaller was in order.

Micro-USB-B connector. Source: Wikimedia user, masamic

Surely USB could do the job now though, right? Mini-USB had been deprecated (thank god, it was an awful connector and fragile as all hell) and micro-USB was the universal non-30-pin connector of choice for pretty much everything that wasn’t an Apple device. But micro-USB had problems of its own. It’s only really marginally less fragile than mini-USB was. It’s a multitude of parts and is very easy to break with little effort. Also, its specific mechanism of mating with a port — where the pins are on the inside of the device — means that if one of those pins gets damaged in the port, you have to disassemble the device, and replace the entire port. Micro-USB connectors can also be pretty fiddly to connect to the port, and only connect one way.

A diagram of Mini and Micro-USB port mating mechanism (Image adapted from Pocketables)

It also would have lacked the guaranteed device support the 30-Pin + MFi programme brought. Device drivers would be necessary, support for new accessories wouldn’t be guaranteed etc. Also, USB lacks direct audio-out pins, only being able to send audio over the data pins, meaning it’s not suitable as a docking connector. USB also didn’t support anywhere near the speeds needed for uncompressed video-out, while compressed video was far beyond the realm of the iPod and iPhones’ CPUs and GPUs at the time, and if it even were possible, the quality would have been heavily diminished. So, it still wouldn’t be able to do video and digital audio out through a single port. Given the whole point of a new connector would be to save space, it’d be ridiculous to put a micro-USB port for charging and accessories, with another port for video and digital audio out on any mobile device.

A final point against micro-USB is that the standard stated it was to only carry 9W of power. Devices always need recharging, and the faster recharging can happen, the better for the user. There’s obviously a tradeoff between carrying more power and the efficiency in doing so — carrying more power through a cable often generates more heat, which leads to decreased efficiency etc. But either way, it was clear micro-USB was just far, far too limited for Apple, under the standards set out. (To be fair, many micro-USB cables can clearly carry more than just 9W, and the standards have evolved since Lightning was created, but that was the case at the time.)

Lightning fixes pretty much all of these problems. It’s 80% smaller than 30-Pin, in part due to cutting down the number of pins to 8. It’s also a much more resilient connector than micro-USB, being a solid, encased block (even if the cable itself leaves a lot to be desired in terms of lasting power), and it’s reversible! There’s no “right” way up to plug a Lightning connector into the port. It also supports digital video out through the same port it charges and syncs data through and communicates to accessories with. Lightning supports charging of at least a maximum of 12W, currently used in Apple’s 12W USB charger, for iPads and iPhone 6 (and above, presumably, come September), meaning faster charging is possible through the cable. Finally, the connector mating mechanism is far, far better than that offered by any current USB implementation, including Type-C. The pins are on the connector, not inside the device. If a pin becomes unusable, you replace the cable. Much simpler than disassembling the device to install a new micro-USB port, if that’s even possible.

A diagram of Lightning’s mating mechanism (Image adapted from Pocketables)

Something that’s slightly more tenuous as to whether it’s a benefit or not is the authentication chip Lightning requires. In theory, it means that only Apple-approved cable producers can make Lightning cables. That sounds horribly controlling, and it is. It also means, as Apple are the producers of the authentication chip, Apple can jack the prices up well over that of the average micro-USB cable, because only Lightning cables with this chip function properly. The only thing that makes up for it is that Apple can vet cable makers for product quality (a bit ironic, considering how poor the resilience of the first few waves of Apple’s own Lightning cables were) and safety. Given the dire state of power accessories and huge deficits in safety caused by counterfeit devices, this could be a benefit, even though it does lead to increased cost and Apple holding the keys to who can and cannot make Lightning devices. It’s an uneasy tradeoff, that’s for certain, so I’m filing this in the “in between” box. (As an aside, and with the necessary caveat that this is entirely anecdotal, I’ve had a number of mini- and micro-USB cables decide that, for whatever reason, they don’t want to carry enough power to a device for it to turn on, while others had no problem. Upon inspection, the cables which didn’t work seemed to be no-name, no-label, no-brand cables, while the ones which did were cables I’ve bought from named, branded companies. Obviously make of that what you will…)

So hopefully, this clear up why Apple didn’t choose to use micro-USB to replace ol’ faithful 30-pin. Again, I’m sure economic benefits of control over who makes the cables, and the ability to keep developing an accessory ecosystem based on their own connector were also deciding factors, but I don’t believe they were the main factor, or even the major factors. In developing their own connector, Apple can innovate and make progress at their own rate, not limited by inter-group arguments about what should and shouldn’t be part of a specification.

That’s not to say that Apple don’t partake in the creation and embracing of standards, though. They first included USB on the iMac G3 while removing any and all legacy ports, meaning it was USB-or-nothing for device manufacturers, at least on the Apple side. It remains a widely argued point how much influence a company with as little market share as Apple had on the success of USB, but I doubt it hurt adoption, with companies being forced to use it to continue to interface with Macs. More recently, they were involved in the development of Thunderbolt, with Intel — which seems to be this generation’s FireWire in literally every single way, including lack of adoption. Even more recently, they became one of the (if not the) first computer manufacturers to put a USB-C port on one of their computers — the Retina MacBook. In fact, this is the only port on the Retina MacBook. But what exactly is USB-C?

A Belkin USB-C to USB-C cable

USB-C is a new connector for the USB standard — it’s smaller than the current USB-A connector you’ll find on desktops, laptops, USB chargers etc., it’s roundrect-shaped instead of being a normal rectangle, and it’s reversible. USB-C is also designed to replace pretty much every other form of USB connector to date, including USB-A (the connector you’ll find on your computer), USB-B (the connector you’ll find on your printer, scanner, etc.), and the godawful abomination that is the USB 3.0 micro-B connector.

USB 3.0 Micro-B connector. Yeah, it’s literally the USB 2.0 Micro-B connector with some more pins shoved onto the side, in their own little box.

(Seriously, who the hell thought backwards compatibility of USB 2.0 micro-B connectors was worth this?!) On top of the clear physical benefits, USB-C also supports providing a hell of a lot more power than any USB port in the past could have — up to 100W, more than enough to charge and power most modern laptops at full speed and then some, not just tablet devices. Remember I said the Retina MacBook only had a USB-C port? Yeah, other than the headphone jack, that is the only port it has. The USB-C port is used for charging the device as well, at 35W.

The Retina MacBook’s sole USB-C port

USB-C also provides something called Alternate Mode, which allows it to carry DisplayPort signals for digital video-out direct from the GPU. This means, with appropriate adaptors, USB-C can be used for charging your device — a Mac charging an iPhone, or because it’s reversible, an iPhone charging a Mac; communicating with devices and peripherals; and outputting to a display. It can do just about everything Lightning does — and more. With a simple adaptor, it can also be converted into the much more common (for now) USB-A, for use with all your “old” USB devices.

So that’s it, Lightning is dead, we can all pack up our Lightning docks and accessories and chuck ‘em in the bin, right? Apple will obviously replace Lightning with USB-C in the iPhone 6s/6s Plus and iPads. Right? Well, I wouldn’t be so sure. There are a few reasons that make me think this isn’t going to happen any time soon…

Apple’s new Lightning dock.

The biggest reason is something that actually happened yesterday, out of the blue. Apple decided to release a Lightning dock for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

It seems odd that Apple would release an accessory now for a product they launched in September 2014 and will be updating in September 2015, where the updated product wouldn’t be compatible. It just wouldn’t be worth making.

My second biggest reason for believing Apple would stick with Lightning (and was my main reason, until the dock came along) is that USB-C is a bigger connector than Lightning. The Lightning connector is just under 7mm wide and 1.5mm deep, whereas USB-C is 8.6mm wide and 2.6mm deep. This doesn’t make it that much bigger, but it’d be odd for Apple to move to something bigger than they’re currently using, when that increase in size would lead to significant internal changes being made. I don’t see Apple’s engineers being willing to sacrifice any internal space for a USB-C port.

Apple have started investing more heavily in the Lightning accessory market recently, allowing companies to purchase Lightning ports, not just connectors, to put on their devices. Whether this would just be for charging, or to allow daisy chaining of accessories for the iPhone/iPad, who knows? All I’m seeing is Apple putting more effort and money into keeping Lightning relevant.

Accessories with Lightning connectors have also been appearing on the market with increasing frequency, and for a variety of different tasks, more recently. There are now Lightning keyboards, and Lightning headphones. This gives more evidence for Apple growing the Lighting accessory ecosystem, even if much of the smartphone accessory market is moving towards communication via Bluetooth rather than physical connectors.

On the whole, Apple aren’t showing any signs of abandoning Lightning any time soon. Lightning and USB-C can co-exist peacefully, for now.

And in a few years time, we’ll look back at the idea of having physical connectors on our devices and laugh, as we place our iPhone 8 or Samsung Galaxy Note 7 down, knowing that it’s constantly being recharged by a room-wide wireless power solution and syncing data totally wirelessly. Well, I guess we’re already half-way there…

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