I had a revelation recently by testing the wired load speed of my faithful iPhone 16 Plus. In six months of property, he came to my mind when I made the dust skipped like an archaeologist examining an old pot, I had Never Connects a cable to the USB-C port of my iPhone. It seemed impossible, but it was true.
And it made me think. Do iPhone owners even need ports? When reports suggest that Apple works on a smartphone without wearing at all, everyone loses their heads. But if I can spend half a year without using the USB-C port of my iPhone and not notice, where is the problem? If Apple wants to abandon the iPhone USB-C port, I say: Well.
The port at the bottom of an iPhone was absolutely fundamental for its well-being. Whether it's 30 pin, lightning or USB-C later, the load / data port was the main one, often the only route to or outside the iPhone. In addition to loading, this port was vital at the start to download music and books from the device and remove photos and videos. Synchronization and backup were also carried out via a wired connection. But one by one that these uses have gone from wired only to wire or wireless sleeve, to Magsafe, to whom still uses a wire?
Most of us will have memories of moments when the port connection has become unreliable and the amount of pain. From that moment, until you have a new phone, the cable had to be stirred in a specific way to make it begin to load, or the phone had to be put upside down or from a strange angle. “Do not use this cable,” warn a friend. “He only plays well with that of the official Apple.” Just another of these modern amenities that make life hell.
Magsafe is already a fantastic wireless option for (most) iPhones.
Shutterstock.com / Serhatctk
In recent times, however, this particular set of annoyance has faded in the background, at least for me. I load wirelessly during the night when the slower speed does not matter. I receive my music in streaming, not being 87 years old, and I transfer everything else wirelessly to and from the phone, it is not 2009. Literally, the only time I need the port since I bought the phone is to test the efficiency of the port.
Okay, you say: intimidate for you, you don't need the port. But what is the problem with keeping it optional? Where is the evil? Evil, my Socratic friend, is that the inclusion of a design element that the user does not need is a waste of resources and an unnecessary compromise. As I explained during the defense of the notch several years ago, apparently isolated design decisions have a training effect in the rest of the product. And if Apple could abandon the USB-C port, it could improve the phone in various other ways.
More obviously, having a physical opening on a phone is simply to ask for unwanted things to make your way inside. The dust I mentioned earlier; Water and coffee overturned. The iPhone 16 Plus has an excellent note of protective protective of the IP68, but it took more than a decade to Apple to reach this point because the port made so difficult to keep the dust and the water out of the device. Open your iPhone and you will see many design and compromise adaptations around the port module to quench the entire device; These could be abandoned tomorrow if the port was not there, releasing space in the chassis. It is above the room that you would win by removing the port module itself, of course.
If you have an additional place inside the chassis, you can install a larger battery or move other components in a more optimal configuration. The withdrawal of the port could allow Apple to have a speaker on the entire width of the lower edge, and it would access your phone's interns to repair a simpler process.
It could even allow the company to make its iPhones thinner, transcending a limitation currently imposed by the thickness of the port. Oppo Find N5 of this year, which uses a custom USB-C port to shave every millimeter possible, is a good example of how manufacturers strike a brick wall in their quest for phones still rooted. As long as customers insist on connecting cables to their phone, companies will no longer be able to reduce size.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
Perhaps the greatest reason why I want Apple to abandon the USB-C port, however, is that it will force the industry and the company to finally bite the ball and fully adopt the wireless. Apple has a massive weight as a force for change. When iPhones have ceased to have 3.5 mm headsets, accessory manufacturers have moved their hidden headset concentration to the wired headset (or in some cases, for a certain time, Lightning or USB-C), and such devices have become cheaper, better and more widely available. If a piece of wealthy iPhone owners suddenly lost their USB-C ports, Android manufacturers would probably follow the step, and the same would happen for wireless chargers.
Cars would start to be sold as standard with Qi2 magnetic supports rather than, or as the cable ports that many currently offer. Wireless load washers would become commonplace in houses and offices. And companies (including, I expect Apple himself, because it would be eager to soothe EU regulators) would throw their weight behind the development of faster, more effective and more distance wireless standards in a way that would be less attractive if the cable was still an easy option.
I do not imagine a second that the USB-C port would disappear overnight. If the iPhone 18 series, for example, has proven without port, there would always be an iPhone 17th with a port, not to mention older generations still on sale at a lower price. For those who always want a port, the option would remain – clearly for many years, if the slow death of the home button is something to pass.
No one would be forced to join the Revolution immediately. But the revolution arrives, and the sooner we start, the better.
