I mean, it's good to reduce disposable cables, but it's not like Apple is egregious about this. The Lightning port has been in use longer than the time between the release of USB and Mini-USB, Mini-USB and Micro-USB, Micro-USB and USB-C, or USB-C to today. The 30-pin connector was current for 9 years, even longer than Lightning has been around.
This is a rather pointless stat though. None of the cables currently available are rated for 9 years and most have a ridiculously short lifespan of 1-2 years anyway.
In fact it probably works against Apple as it demonstrates that the churn of innovation doesn't really exist if new advances only occur every 9 years.
The article talks about trying to cut down on electronic waste:
> The regulator is determined to cut down on electronic waste being created by obsolete cables, which it estimates generate more than 51,000 tonnes of waste per year.
It's surely much less wasteful to extend the life of the cable standard than to ensure longer cable lifespans. Even if you had a cable that lasted 7 years, chances are the standard would have changed and you would be forced to replace it. You can always purchase higher quality cables that do have longer lifespans if Apple's aren't up to your quality standards.
> In fact it probably works against Apple as it demonstrates that the churn of innovation doesn't really exist if new advances only occur every 9 years.
I think you may have misunderstood the OP statistics. My understanding was that the industry standards have previously been churning at a higher rate than Apple's standards. So Apple's standards are often longer lived than the standard connections.
It's pointless because , the chance of a cable lasting 7 years doesn't happen. Even the phone isn't typically designed to last that long.
The cases where people end up replacing their cable because of a new standard is way less frequent than the cable breaking, this has been my experience at least considering the shifting standards which you talk about.
It sounds a bit like optimizing some process but ignoring what is actually the bottleneck. The problem in this case is not the standard on top, but the lifetime of the cable.
If the goal is to reduce e-waste then surely it makes sense to tackle the approach from a reduce, reuse, recycle perspective in that order and focussing on the EOL for the cable.
By shifting to one cable standard, you can reduce/reuse as at least other products can have better utilization as that old cable is still usable with other products. I have been less incentivised to buy new usb C cable for my phone because my switch and headphone cables still work just fine.
I can't do anything with a lightning cable if my iphone dies other than to use it for apple products. Just like I can't do anything with my old ipod connectors. That is just straight e-waste.
By shifting to one cable standard, we can more easily recycle the cable as there would be more manufacturers who would have the supply-chain/capabilities of recycling these chargers. Contrast that to the lightning cable which only apple and other companies with a lightning connector can handle effectively.
> the chance of a cable lasting 7 years doesn't happen
What do you do to your cables? I have a 30-pin iPad-charging cables that is from 2011, and it's working fine. Coming up on nine years.
I still regularly use a lightning cable (and charger brick) from 2013, just a year after lightning was introduced, and that's coming up on 7 years.
Your anecdotal evidence is that cables break before becoming obsolete. My anecdotal evidence is the opposite. I have a box full of USB-notC cables in a closet for devices I rarely use, or that are no longer usable, all the while I charge my iPad with a now-obsolete 30-pin cable.
Apple cables are notorious for wearing badly. I suspect it's because they favor very thin casing and for greater flexibility -- a lightning cable winds tighter than typical charging cables for other phones. MacBook Pro chargers also suffer from the syndrome.
Apple phones also last longer than other phones, and because their connections remain so standard, you can use the same cable for multiple phones. I've definitely destroyed some Apple cables, but generally they've been on their second or third device.
> I suspect it's because they favor very thin casing and for greater flexibility -- a lightning cable winds tighter than typical charging cables for other phones.
I'm not so sure about this explanation—the cables usually fail at the very ends, where the connector meets the cable itself.
Sadly, I can't say the same of my experience with the Defy+. I found it quite disappointing. Small screen, bulky case (that was fragile and broke around the external screws), and not much more wear and water resistant than a regular phone. I dug it out recently and sold it on ebay, although I'm not sure what can be done with a phone stuck with an old version of the play store.
No, it did not go beyond 4.4. 5.0 has been booted on it but never got any further, mostly due to the fact that nobody got a 3.x kernel running satisfactorily on the device. I do use one with a 3.1 kernel (running MPD) but all the others are still at 2.6.
Until recently my daughter was still using a 30pin cable that came with a first gen iPad. So "the chance of a cable lasting 7 years doesn't happen" is patently false.
Still using my first gen iPad here, though it's only for reading ebooks.
I have a bunch of 30 pin cables for it though (eg one left plugged into charger at home, one always in my bag, etc). No idea which one is the original cable, and which are cheapo knock-offs.
Over the years, I think one of them went bad and needed replacing. The rest are fine though.
That's a single scenario (focusing on the 'obsolete' part), and android users buying iPhones has the same effect (additional cables for no functional difference)
There's an infinite number of cases where getting rid of the lightning spec would reduce the number of cables.
A household with an iPhone and an android user would also buy an extra set of cables that could be avoided. Even having an iPad in the mix generates cable duplication: the iPad Pro is on the different connector, android users buying an iPad is also more common than one would think.
Broadening to charging stations in waiting rooms, shopping malls, cafes etc., including other portable devices like headphones, portable batteries, cameras, etc. and the iPhone having its own non standard and connector is more and more a waste.
If there aren't enough iPhone users to worry about, then why force us to replace all of our cables, chargers, docks, etc?
You can't have it both ways!
One year ago, there were 1.4 billion[0] of us, each with one or more (many more, in my case) cables, docks, cradles, etc. That's a lot of waste to churn up for "not enough iPhone users."
As I understand it, there are real advantages (other than selling more cables) to making the cable connectors more fragile than those on the device. You actually want most of the wear and tear to take place on the cable rather than the device connector because it is cheaper and easier to replace.
2 year lifespan, seriously? My phone's standard mini-USB cable is at least 5 years old by now, and shows zero signs of wear. What the hell is Apple doing to make such awful cables?
Making lots of money, that is what they're doing. They do seem to have managed to get people to believe that it is normal for a cable to fail after such a short time.
By the way, I guess that your phone's standard cable is not mini-USB but micro-USB.
I've had iPhones since 2014 and still have all chargers and cables.
I guess some people just mistreat their cables alot more.
If anything Apple has actually been the responsible one only using 2 different connectors, while the rest of the industry have been doing; mini usb, micro usb and now usb-c. And before they - with the advent of iPhone - started with usb connectors all phone manufacturers had their own proprietary connectors.
Who knows what comes along in 5 years on the usb side.
I sure hope Apple stays off USB-C on iPhones for a good while.
Lightning cables are by far the most fragile. Either they get frayed, tarnished, or just plain stop working.
Edit: it's not just me, a simple Google search turns up the following: [0]. Apple phone/tablet hardware is great but the cables they ship are unfortunately not very good.
The ones that Apple sells, at least. The braided cables are seriously durable.
My favorite variant, though, are the magnetic Lightning chargers you can get for basically nothing on Aliexpress. Never have to worry about plugging in/unplugging your phone ever again; just put it into your phone once, and then whenever you need to charge just connect the magnetic cable to it.
In my experience, the connector has never been implicated in a failing Lightning cable; it’s always been the cable itself. By contrast, the average lifespan of a micro USB cable in my household is a couple months, before the connectors themselves get bent beyond repair.
I don't know how much you abuse cables but I never had a USB cable fail. I understand there's a variable quality of cables out there but failing after 2 months sounds exaggerated
I have small kids who are prone to tripping over cables while trying to squeeze into tight spaces. Lightning connectors handle that stress just fine, but micro USB is no match!
I've had exactly one USB cable fail: a cheap Type-C cable that shorted near one of the ends and let out a nice stinky puff of magic smoke. Thankfully my phone survived unharmed.
Same anecdote here -- every lightning cable has held up spectacularly. I've still bought a couple of extra long braided ones just because, but the included ones are fine.
And even if the cable failed, it's worth noting that with the various USB variants before USB-C, it was likely the connector in the device that failed rather than the cable (because it bore the load). I had more than one device have the USB port destroyed under ordinary use.
I still prefer lightning to USB-C, but if it wasn't for Apple doing their own thing we'd probably be still on some ridiculous USB variant with a litany of design mistakes.
