iPhones are rumored to switch to USB-C cables. They should.
All Apple (AAPL) and Android products might become united under one cable standard, the USB-C.
That’s according to a new post by a Japanese supply-chain blog, Macotakara, which cited “several” anonymous sources that the company “might” use the technology in future iPhones.
Nothing has been confirmed yet, and Apple did not respond to a request for comment. But the move would make sense for a number of reasons.
Apple is already using the common standard USB-C (its own version is called Thunderbolt 3) to power its larger portable devices like the iPad Pro, the MacBook, and the MacBook Air. For the iPhones, iPads, and Apple TV remote control batteries, however, the Lightning connector remains.
Both plug in either direction and are small, providing quick connection, but the USB-C standard has become the standard for almost everything else not made by Apple, surpassing the MicroUSB.
While another cable change — which would be the first since the iPhone 4 – would irritate some Apple customers, the prospect of having one cable to rule them all could end up in Apple’s favor.
It would make sense financially, as well. Apple makes money selling cables and charging accessories, so a new standard would likely boost this revenue stream as people make a changeover. The full cable and accessories business is hard to measure, but the market is significant.
For battery packs alone, the Verge reported it to be around $360 million in 2017, and other market research from Markets and Markets put the total cables and accessories market at $123 billion that year. In 2022, that number could be $158 billion.
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Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumer issues, retail, personal finance, and more. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann.
