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I suppose that if you’re upgrading to iPhone and already have one it is a waste to give you yet another charger. I wonder how much energy is used creating these cables that often go straight in a drawer because the previous cable is already conveniently plugged into the wall.

discuss

beowulfey|5 years ago

I personally find uses for these extra chargers, I would never give one away; and USB-C chargers are especially rare in my house.

Allow me to personally offer to take any off the hands of anyone who feels they have too many.

Cthulhu_|5 years ago

Yeah in theory it's a defensible move, because we're moving towards standardized charging ports. However, Apple is the only one that's being weird about it, introducing the Lightning connector instead of e.g. switching to micro-USB. USB-C was still a while out when Lightning was introduced.

But honestly they have no excuse to not adopt Micro-USB or USB-C.

tokamak-teapot|5 years ago

As an iPhone owner, I don’t want USB-C. Not yet, anyway. The reason is that I don’t know how to be confident that a particular cable and power source will charge my phone well and won’t fry it.

I expect Apple knows its customers would like to have confidence about this and that’s why they are holding off.

With Lightning, I have been happy enough to plug into various non-Apple-brand chargers with USB-A sockets. Maybe charging might not be as fast as with an official charger. But it will likely work and I don’t expect the possibility of damage.

leadingthenet|5 years ago

Lighting is way better than micro-USB, and somewhat better than even USB-C, which, as you correctly mentioned, was released years after its debut.

So that’s their “excuse”, and I’m glad for it every time I have to interact with a micro-USB cable.

matwood|5 years ago

> But honestly they have no excuse to not adopt Micro-USB or USB-C.

The only reason for usb-c on my phone is the convenience factor. Otherwise I find lightening superior in every other way. And micro-usb, you have to be kidding.

ralfd|5 years ago

Lightning is symmetric, Micro USB is not.

Lightning is smaller than USB-C.

dingaling|5 years ago

Most people sell or trade-in their old phones, however, and include the OEM charger to maximise their value.

I recently had to buy three expensive aftermarket chargers because we just didn't have enough OEM ones in the house.