Bloomberg: Apple is testing iPhones with USB-C port and adapters to Lightning – Tablets and phones – News

Then you spend a ton of money on a good technique and they still say “nope”, nice then. That is why innovations will again come from companies outside the EU, as nobody here will waste their R&D budget on it and we are always behind.

I see it differently, through different lines I come to the same conclusion, namely that it is not a real problem.

The first line is that USB-C offers enough space for the foreseeable future. Such a cable has two functions, data and power.

Data can handle 10gbit, but no consumer has anything at home that works that fast. Consumer networks are 1gbit and for those that are over to 10gbit we are at least 10 years further. I think it will be 25 years before 10gbit no longer suffices.

In terms of power, USB-C is mainly limited by the thickness of the cable. Sending current through such a thin cable is simply too dangerous and that will not change, barring fundamental breakthroughs. If we want more power, we need a thicker cable, but the plug does not have to change much in the foreseeable future. In addition, our batteries will also have to take some steps to really benefit from this.

So I don’t see any restrictions that will stop us in the next 10 to 20 years.

Side street: network is becoming more and more wireless. Cable is faster but wireless is more convenient and the latter is clearly gaining ground (whatever we may think of that).

The other line is that this limitation only applies to certain devices and only to the power cord. This limitation does not apply to laptops, PCs and servers, for example. If a cable that is better than USB-C comes out, it will probably be applied first to a desktop computer that needs and can use such a fast connection. If that is a success, the new cable can be approved as a successor. Perhaps there is a transition period in which the new cable has not yet been approved, but then there is always the option to give a device 2 cables. That’s not ideal, but for a device that is said to be new or progressive, that seems like an acceptable compromise.

Our sockets have been the same for decades and I don’t believe we experience any limitations on innovativeness there. Eventually some pieces of copper have to be pressed together. It’s not that complicated. A USB-C cable doesn’t do much different, pressing pieces of copper together.

Of course you never know what breakthroughs or new insights the future will bring, but I think it will be a long time before we run into limitations of the current standard. I don’t expect any real innovation of the hardware for the time being, physically the differences between USB A and USB C are not great at all, the most important difference is that USB-C is symmetrical. I expect innovation mainly on the software side and that is still possible.

Finally, Lightning has also been around for 10 years and Apple uses USB-C on other devices, not exactly a spearhead of innovation. For the time being, this area appears to be fully developed.

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