Comment by 3D30497420

8 months ago

Wasn't Apple super "courageous" when they killed the headphone jack?

I tend to view Apple's actions (and those of any company really) first through the lens of their own self-interest. Killing the headphone jack, which was an open standard, benefited wireless headphones. And, unsurprisingly, Apple's proprietary integration with Airpods help make them the best wireless headphone choice.

While I don't wholly disagree that Apple would have eventually switched to USB-C, I doubt they were slow to migrate out of an abundance of caution. Apple is a huge fan of lock-in, and never gives in to open standards easily.

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3D30497420

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chuckadams  8 months ago

Apple did switch to USB-C on the iPad, as Lightning was showing its age both in max power draw and data rate. Putting it on phones was inevitable at that point.

I’m not a huge fan of the EU government making specific demands of specific companies to adopt specific technologies, but this is Wi-Fi and telecom tech has a long history of adoption through legislation. So it’s not at all unprecedented and is probably the lesser evil in this case.

  • ryao  8 months ago

    They had usb 3.0 speeds over lightning on some models (e.g. the iPad Pro), but they kept introducing models that were usb 2.0 speed only for no apparent reason other than cost savings on the rest.

    • int_19h  8 months ago

      And they still do it with USB-C. iPhone 16 and 16 Plus are restricted to USB 2.0 speeds; you have to shell out for 16 Pro or 16 Pro Max to get USB 3.0.

      I don't think it's about cost savings, even. It's just a way to differentiate the products, Apple-style.

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