With Apple acknowledging EU's consumer laws, maybe they should start looking into Micro-USB connectors as well?
Note that I don't advocate any kind of violence to be applied to, say, Samsung or you to have the same adapter as Apple or anyone else.
People I talk to may not care about MicroUSB connectors specifically, but they do care about being able to use anyone's phone charger if their phone runs out of power. For that microUSB chargers are more common.
And they're cheaper. MicroUSB cables are €3 + shipping (so €8 if you buy them individually, cheaper if you buy a few). Apple chargers are €20.
Personally, the unreliability and expense of Apple's chargers were one of the reasons I stopped using Apple devices (though not the primary one, that honour goes to iTunes). The microUSB chargers weren't any more reliable, but they were a lot cheaper.
If micro-usb is better, then people will buy other products and Apple would have to adjust to that. Either by earning less or by adopting micro usb. What's the problem?
For the EU, the whole Micro USB thing isn't just about defining a connector that is somehow superior to all existing solutions. It is about standardization and about reducing waste from old phone chargers.
And I think Apple, with their shift to the Lightning Connector proofed this point for the EU better than anyone else could have. Just think about the enormous amount of chargers and other products with a dock connector that will hit the landfills sooner rather than later for no good reason at all, except Apples vanity and some marginal improvements.
By the way, what do you do when 5 of your friends just cannot decide where to go tonight? Do you take out your gun and force them to choose one single solution? Or you leave them alone until they find a place suitable to everyone?
Do you think the market would have moved car manufacturers in that direction on its own? Of course not.
Things that benefit companies do not always benefit consumers. That's why we apply regulations to them.
That said, I haven't looked very hard because I only buy cables about once a year.
I know at least three people who were just fed up with not being able to find appropriate connectors when on the go, and left for non-Apple devices as a result.
I mean, iDevices are already losing in terms of market share and revenue, you'd think they would find new ways to cater to existing desires of returning customers.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD820ZM/A/lightning-to-mic...
Anecdotal: my Lightning cables are holding up a lot better than my Dock connector cables ever did. As for chargers, I’ve never had an iPod or iDevice charger break on me.
Citation needed.
http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/29/apples-ipad-market-share-c...
The September quarter is not iPad’s strongest, wait for next quarter’s results for that[1]. Last year’s September quarter was exceptionally strong, as no-one expected new iPads 6 months after the last refresh and the iPad 3 had finally met demand in the September quarter. This year, new iPads were expected in September. The true impact of Apple’s new iPad line-up can only be seen when the company can meet demand (March quarter 2014.)
Marketshare is trickier to measure, as Apple is one of the only companies that report on actual sell-through sales and breaks the figures out to phones and tablets. And even if others were open about it, you’d have to decide in what markets they are exactly competing. Is iPad part of the same market that sells $100 toy tablets? Is iPhone part of the same market that sells Android 2.3 and Asha feature phones?
Cases could be made that iOS is losing marketshare and cases could be made that iOS is still gaining marketshare. I objected to GP stating iOS decline as an established fact.
[1] http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/28/apple-4q13-earnings-charts/
[2] http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/10/28Apple-Reports-Four...
Also, saying iOS device revenues are growing is like saying Freenode userbase and activity is growing... It may be true, but it is not indicative of the market, it just says that some more people are doing it than before.
On the whole tablet market, it depends on how many cheap ($100-$300) tablets are flooding the market. When comparing $300-$1000 tablets, I don’t think Apple is losing a lot of market share. iPad sales are still on an upward trend, and I think the new offerings certainly help.[1]
Basically this means that my ipad often runs out of juice and my ipod gets used even less. My guess is that there are a lot of old ipods that will not get a retirement job because they outlived their connectors.
I can't stand proprietary connectors as much as the next person, but there's no denying that their Lightning connector is much much better than any USB. It's reversible for one (size and robustness aside).
And I think that's the key issue – not just Apple's licensing fees, but the cost of the cables too. They'd either have to include a Lightning cable themselves or handle complaints from customers who need to buy an extra one. Either way, it's a bad deal.
The fact that it's a closed standard and requires licensing fees (both of which are clearly ridiculous) are separate issues from whether the design itself is technically better than USB or not.
How hard it is to feel which way you're holding the USB cable? They are often asymmetrically designed, you know?
I can do it half asleep in pitch dark.
If someone can't plug in a cable in the right way, I seriously doubt they should be using a smart phone in the first place... or any technology more sophisticated than a pointy stick.
Sure, I'll take that bait. There are innumerable disabilities which might mean people have trouble manipulating small objects. That seems like an obvious reason for making it reversible for one. But congratulations for managing to do it half asleep in the dark (anecdotes don't make a convincing argument: I could share several contrary anecdotes myself).
But as for other benefits? There have been USB standards that have been deprecated because they were so fragile (I forget which–Mini?). The Lightning connector is solid, not hollow, and so seems more robust. The Lightning connector is also designed to support much higher power ratings than USB, so can charge devices faster.
Whether it's worth the cost is another issue, but even ignoring the other advantages Osmium brings up, it's a better connector.
And I didn't say anything about whether Lightning is better or worse than USB, or more versatile or what ever. Just that can we please stop with the "But it's reversible" thing? It just sounds like something to say when people can't come up with better reasons.
Ultimately they don't care for the product just the next potential purchase.