Only Three Lonely Products Still Use Apple's Lightning Connector

It Feels Like we person been saying goodbye to Apple’s Lightning cablegram for immoderate time, and that farewell appears to beryllium each the person pursuing the company’s September Glowtime event. With the slew of devices announced, Apple has present transitioned astir of its flagship products to USB-C. However, the proprietary connector we cognize truthful good is inactive hiding successful immoderate corners of its merchandise enactment up if you look hard enough. But for however overmuch longer?

It's nary concealed that Apple's transition to USB-C has felt messy and disorganized—WIRED writer Andrew Williams adjacent wrote a heartfelt eulogy for Lightning backmost successful 2020. And yet, present we are successful 2024, with a lonely fewer Lightning products inactive clinging on.

So however did we get here? The Lightning connector was archetypal announced successful 2012 alongside the iPhone 5, arsenic a replacement for yet different proprietary charger—the bulky and prone-to-failure 30-pin connector. Not lone was Lightning overmuch smaller, creating much abstraction wrong devices for other components (like bigger batteries), it besides raised the modular for durability. Plus it was reversible, truthful whichever mode you plugged it in, it would fit.

However, proprietary chargers besides gave Apple control. Every Lightning connector has a tiny Apple spot successful it to assistance modulate voltage, and portion that tin beryllium said to amended safety, it has besides allowed the institution to cod licensing fees from third-party accessory makers, leveraging the Lightning larboard via the company's Made for iPhone (MFi) program. It's casual to spot wherefore it would privation to clasp connected to the modular for arsenic agelong arsenic possible.

With that said, the dependable determination to USB-C really started connected Apple’s ain accidental so, successful 2018 with the iPad Pro. In 2020, the iPad Air followed suit, past the iPad Mini successful 2021. Whether Apple would’ve yet moved the iPhones over, too, we’ll ne'er know, due to the fact that successful 2022 the European Union stepped in, and passed a law that meant phones, cameras, and tablets sold successful the portion had to battalion a USB-C larboard by the extremity of this year. Apple said it would comply, but it wasn't blessed astir it, stating that specified strict regularisation “stifles innovation.”

Whether oregon not the institution ever genuinely believed that, the power to USB-C doesn’t look to person held Apple back. At its Glowtime hardware event, it took the accidental to determination the the remainder of the AirPods household to USB-C—finally updating the AirPods Max to the format and bringing it to the caller AirPods 4, too. So which Lightning products are left?

Aside from older, bequest iPhones and the first-gen Apple Pencil that stay connected sale, the lone existent procreation products inactive being sold that boast a Lightning transportation are the Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad. However, it's highly imaginable that these Mac accessories could besides beryllium refreshed with USB-C by the extremity of the year.

According to the Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman expects Apple to clasp different lawsuit successful October to denote the M4-powered iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook Pro, and caller iPad models. It would marque consciousness for the institution to necktie successful updated versions of its keyboard, rodent and trackpad then.

As for that bequest first-gen Apple Pencil, it could yet beryllium discontinued, too. At this point, having four antithetic styli to take from is overkill—especially erstwhile 1 of them requires removing the headdress and awkwardly plugging it into an (old) iPad's Lightning larboard to complaint it.

But it whitethorn instrumentality a spot longer for Apple to ditch those remaining iPhones from its store. Since the iPhone hardware lawsuit for this twelvemonth has already passed, it's apt we won't spot these models pulled from the catalog until adjacent September—with the probability the institution mightiness besides denote the long-overdue, next-generation iPhone SE with USB-C, too.

Regardless, it means the Lightning cablegram remains wrong the Apple universe, for present astatine least. But the extremity is near, and 2025 could yet beryllium the twelvemonth that Lightning heads to the large proprietary recycling bin successful the sky.