There have been plenty of signs that Apple will finally drop its Lightning connector on its iPhones for USB-C. This is especially considering the EU has passed legislation on the matter not too long ago. It looks like the fruit company will also be extending the connectivity standard change to its AirPods as well as Mac accessories as well.
According to Bloomberg, Apple might give the AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max the USB-C treatment by 2024. Ditto the Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard for the Mac. The report notes that the company could still release existing versions of these products, since the EU law, should it be signed, will only require devices to sport USB-C if they launched before the end of 2024.
All that being said though, the report also notes that USB-C won’t be a thing for as long as the Lightning connector has been around. This is because the iPhone maker intends to fully transition to fully wireless devices, like the Apple Watch, over the next few years. No timeline as to when this will happen, but USB-C will probably not last 11 years on the company’s devices like the Lightning connector, or the iPod connector before it.
Back in 2019, Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that Apple will drop ports altogether for iPhones, with the predicted timeline at the time was 2021. That obviously never happened, and more recently, the analyst predicted that iPhones coming next year will show up with USB-C ports instead. So while the prediction was off by a few years, it looks like it is something that will eventually happen anyway.
When it does, MagSafe will likely be the one charging standard that’s needed to top up all things Apple. Which is quite the ironic twist, since smartwatches are the one electronic device that’s exempt from having USB-C in the EU, since many already use wireless charging.
(Source: Bloomberg)
