Let me get this out of the way; I don’t think that any company should switch something as important as a charging port for no reason. It’s annoying to have to switch out all your cables. With that out of the way, I truly think Apple should finally make a USB-C iPhone. Or even better, an iPhone with a USB-C/ Thunderbolt port.

When the European Union first started to suggest they were about to force all cell phone manufacturers to have one type of connector to cut down on waste, I scoffed at the idea. I didn’t like the idea of having to buy new connectors for my iPhone. I think the lightning cable is actually a better port because it can hold up better. But, I will admit that the idea of having one less cable to bring with me when I traveled sounded pretty good.

Now, having some distance from the issue at hand, my knee-jerk reaction, and actually using the Lightning port for something other than charging, I think it actually makes sense.

Transfer Speeds

A couple of weeks ago, when Apple unleashed the iOS 16 public beta, I jumped at the chance to play with the new system. But like a good digital explorer that I am, I backed up my iPhone by plugging it into my iMac for the first time in case anything went wrong.

I used a USB-C to Lighting cable plugged into my iMac’s Thunderbolt/USB-C port, yet the backup took some time. As far as I know, this is the only way to get an encrypted backup of your iPhone, so that you don’t have to input all your passwords when the device restores. As I was in the midst of the backup, I didn’t think to time it, but I also didn’t think that the backup took too long.

For the next week, I lived with the iOS 16 beta on my iPhone (more on that to come later), and while I liked the new lock screen and even played around with the haptic keyboard clicks, I noticed that my battery was struggling to make it to 3:00 PM. I would have to scurry to find a battery or charging cable. So after a week, I wanted to return to the stability of iOS 15. To downgrade, I had to plug my iPhone back into my iMac and restore to the backup I had created.

This time, using the same connection, it took over four hours to get my iPhone back to a usable condition. Now, this is a real first-world problem, but going four hours without a phone felt limiting. I wasn’t able to log into certain sites (like my work accounts) because they needed to send me a passcode through text, which I couldn’t get until my iPhone finished restoring.

I know tons of data can be sent through that little cable, but in this era, data travels much faster than it did ten years ago when the lightning cable was introduced. The limiting factor here is that the data transfer speed of the Lightning cable is nowhere near as fast as USB-C or Thunderbolt. If Apple were to come out with a USB-C iPhone or even one with Thunderbolt (which could transfer 4x as fast as USB-C) backups would take much less time.

Video on a USB-C iPhone

No USB-C won’t make your videos better, but with Apple bringing more and better video specs to the iPhone, especially the iPhone 13 Pro with its ProRes video codec, many more video creators are using their iPhones to record amazing quality videos. These ProRes videos get so large that getting them off the device becomes a waiting game.

Getting those giant videos off the device quickly is nearly impossible. You have to wait for your iCloud library to sync, AirDrop from your iPhone to Mac, or plug your phone into a computer. Most creators would love to plug their iPhones into a computer and get those files off quickly, but the transfer speed is so slow they can’t. They have to wait a long time which can delay production. With a USB-C iPhone, the files would transfer quicker allowing more work to be done. If Apple created a Thunderbolt iPhone it could improve things even more.

One Cable to Rule Them All

Don’t get me started on the mess that is USB-C and Thunderbolt cables. They all have the same connector, but some cables offer faster speeds than others and some only provide power. It’s crazy.

But since the MacBook and iPad lines started to embrace USB-C (even though MagSafe is making a comeback) it has been pretty easy to travel with both my iPad and Mac. I only need one cable and one charger for both devices.

But then I need a different cable for my iPhone and AirPods. And yet another cable for my Apple Watch. Ignoring the Apple Watch, if Apple moved to a USB-C iPhone and all the accessories like AirPods to USB-C, we wouldn’t need to bring so many cables with us when we travel.

iPhone 13 Pro vs Magsafe duo charger (they’ll probably need to make a new one) pic.twitter.com/fYF59AZvgu

— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) September 23, 2021

Plus, moving all of their devices to one cable will cut down on the bird’s nest of cables you must bring. I could bring just 2 cables for my iPhone, Airpods, iPad, MacBook, and any other USB-C device plus my Apple Watch charger and be happy.

And while the future seems to be wireless with MagSafe, Inductive Charging like this isn’t as efficient as a cable. Lots of energy gets wasted when changing like this.

Government Scrutiny

Finally, Apple and some other tech companies are already under great scrutiny from the World Powers. If Apple switched to USB-C iPhones, they’d still be on the hook for the app store government scrutiny (which I think Apple really needs to rethink anyway) but some of the pressure would be off of the company. Right now, it’s not just the EU looking at forcing all companies to use the same connector for mobile phones, but also the US is looking into forcing this.

The most common port on other devices these days seems to be USB-C. It is one of the newest standards created so it would make sense for Apple to switch the iPhone to USB-C, but I wonder if they would just change the adapter and go with Thunderbolt. It would meet the criteria the governments are putting out and allow them to do something slightly different.

While Apple would love to get the Governments of the world of the company’s back, I think they don’t want to give up the extra money that comes from Apple’s MFi (Made For iPhone) program. Right now, if anyone wants to make an authentic Lightning charging cable, they have to pay Apple for the connector types. If the USB-C iPhone were created, Apple would lose the revenue that comes with the iPhone property. Anyone can make USB-C cables, and not everyone is moving to MagSafe.

Apple didn’t become one of the richest companies in the world for no reason. But I think that this is one of those places where maybe, they could give up a little to help out the users. Plus, if they made the change, I’m sure most iPhone users would still get Apple-branded USB-C cables.

Wrapping Up

Lightning has been a great connector for ten years. In fact, I think it is actually a better physical connector compared to USB-C, but a USB-C iPhone has some appeal. Reducing the number of cables needed for Apple devices would be great and having a faster transfer speed for those times you need to get data onto or off your iPhone would improve many workflows.

Of course, knowing Apple, if they do make the move, they won’t do it as simply as changing out the connector. How great would it be if they went the extra mile and added Thunderbolt connectivity to make things even faster?

What do you think? Would a USB-C iPhone appeal to you as a user? Let me know in the comments.