Here's Why Apple Took 8 Years To Bring USB-C To iPhone Despite Contributing To Its Development

Apple Inc. AAPL is widely expected to bring the much-requested USB-C port to the iPhone, with the iPhone 15 scheduled to launch on Tuesday. That said, Apple has been one of the major contributors to the development of the USB-C port, but it seems to have resisted its implementation on principle.

What Happened: Apple helped develop the USB-C port eight years ago, along with industry major Intel. In fact, Apple was amongst the top contributors in terms of engineers assigned to the project, only behind Intel Corporation INTC, Japan Aviations Electronics Industry, and Tyco Electronics Corp.

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This was back in 2014, according to the official USB Implementers Forum documents. Apple assigned more engineers than even industry heavyweights like Microsoft Corp. MSFT, Nokia, and Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google, to name a few.

Why Has Apple taken so long to bring the USB-C port to iPhones? 

After all, it has been one of the most requested features for several years now. Apple stuck to the Lightning port it launched with the iPhone 5 back in 2012, so there were no concerns about it haphazardly changing ports either.

In fact, Apple was the first company to launch a laptop with a USB-C port – the 2015 MacBook featured this port. It also switched to this port on the 2020 iPad Air, so existing Apple products are already using it.

But it persisted with Lightning on iPhones for 11 years. For context, the first Android phone with a USB-C port was the LeEco Le Max, a Chinese phone launched back in 2015.

Why It Took Apple So Long To Switch: While it looks like Apple was being stubborn with the Lightning port on iPhones, the decision to do so could have been based on its principles and operating from a position of strength instead of giving into regulatory whims.

Apple has previously underlined environmental concerns, stating that hundreds of millions of cables and accessories will become incompatible, adding to the e-waste and ending up in a landfill. Environmental concerns have also been Apple's reasoning behind ditching the charging adapter, a move many Android smartphone makers have since approved.

Another reason is Apple doesn't want to be dictated to by governments. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing, Greg Joswiak, said it would help customers to "not have a government be that prescriptive".

He also pointed out how regulatory prescriptions on technology norms can lack the foresight and expertise needed by citing that the European Union pushed for adopting micro-USB ports for several years before giving up.

One of the benefits of the Lightning port is its reversible design – you don't have to look twice before plugging your iPhone in. In an era of micro-USB ports, this was an important advantage.

However, USB-C took that advantage away from Lightning, and now, thanks to its wide adoption and EU rules, iPhone buyers will benefit this time around with Apple being forced to make the switch.

Image – Shutterstock

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