Dave Lee, Columnist

Apple’s Lightning Cable Devotion Lasted Far Too Long

Facing an EU deadline, the iPhone maker will make a switch to USB-C charging that should have happened years ago.

September 12, 2023 at 10:30 AM UTC

Dave Lee is Bloomberg Opinion's US technology columnist. He was previously a correspondent for the Financial Times and BBC News.

Moving on from Lightning.
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images

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It’s 2012, and the iPhone speaker dock I was given by my mum the previous Christmas is blasting out Carly Rae Jepson’s Call Me Maybe which, unlike most of the other hits that year, would come to stand the test of time quite perfectly.

Less enduring would be the 30-pin Apple charger that made such a fine technological feat possible. That year would see it ditched; replaced in the iPhone 5 with the 8-pin, 80% smaller Lightning connector we all recognize today. Just like that, millions of peripherals and accessories were rendered obsolete.