Apple to Launch 'Completely Wireless' iPhone Without Lightning Connector in 2021. Possibly skipping USB-C adoption for iPhone completely

[FloRolf]

iPhone 13 Pro: only wireless charging, no ports. 

 

iPhone 13 Pro Lightning: $100 more but comes with a lightning charging only port. 

 

iPhone 13 Pro Lightning Max: additional $250 but comes with standard lightning port. 

[TechyBen]

5 hours ago, Trik'Stari said:

Funny considering my S8 has a USB C port and a headphone jack and is waterproof.

 

Which I did not know, until I dropped it in the tub whilst soaking my feet. I freaked out because it's a replacement for the first one I bought, and my roommate was just like "bruh, it's fine, they're waterproof".

 

It's almost like this is dumb B$ and Apple knows their fanboys will buy anything they put out regardless of how stupid it is as a concept.

I don't know what is worse, using the phone in the bath, or the fact you're so poor from spending all the money on Samsung phones, that you gotta share bathwater with your room mate!

 

 

[Deli]

14 minutes ago, FloRolf said:

iPhone 13 Pro: only wireless charging, no ports. 

 

iPhone 13 Pro Lightning: $100 more but comes with a lightning charging only port. 

 

iPhone 13 Pro Lightning Max: additional $250 but comes with standard lightning port. 

The wireless only charging phone will come with a slow wireless charger. And Apple will sell you a premium fast charger for a sweet $200. Moreover, Apple will put a chip in its phones so only Apple chargers will work with the new phones.

[jagdtigger]

10 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

there is very little reason to have a cable or port.

Unless your phone's FW is somehow gets borked and you need to reflash it. Previously you just could hook it up to a PC then use whatever SW the phone manufacturer provides. Now you will need to bring it to a service center where they are going charge an arm and a leg for the same thing even you could do.

 

  

1 hour ago, Trik'Stari said:

Funny considering my S8 has a USB C port and a headphone jack and is waterproof.

Even funnier the fact that my s5 is water proof but it has micro usb, headphone jack, and a user replaceable battery.....

Edited December 6, 2019 by jagdtigger

[Doobeedoo]

This is only a matter of time. There is already a phone without ports, like HTC one. First wireless charging will need to get even faster, also things like mass storage transfers will be questionable too. 

[germgoatz]

what the hell no why

[Mnky313]

Well shit, I was hoping by some miracle that Phone manufacturers would realize the crap they were pulling was only going to work so long. But it appears that isn't going to be the case, for some fucking reason every phone manufacturer copies Apple's nonsense.
This brings SO MANY useless compromises and problems for literally no reason, who the fuck is asking for this?!
Like I guess you could buy a wireless charging power bank, wireless charging car dock and a wireless charging pad for your desk but what about the DATA connection, what if I need to copy photos from my phone to a PC, news flash apple but not everyone wants to use fucking airdrop or copy shit or even can, what about PCs without bluetooth? What about if you phone gets borked and you need to restore via recovery mode?
I fucking hope this shit isn't real but this is Apple we are talking about so like... I wouldn't be that surprised...

[Mira Yurizaki]

After stewing on it, I think there's a more tin-foil-hat worthy reason why Apple wants to make a completely wireless device: they can better control access to their hardware.

 

By getting rid of the Lightning port, they've eliminated the final entry point to the lower level aspects of the hardware. This would resolve a lot of problems regarding people jailbreaking or the FBI cracking open iPhones. If anything this would require physically disassembling the phone case. And as another layer of "fuck you", there could be an anti-tamper system in place that if triggered, will lock down the phone further. Which would also mean third party repairs are no longer going to be a thing either.

 

Either way, when you've taken the final entry point to the lower-level areas of the hardware, that tells me they don't want anyone but themselves touching their phones anymore.

[Curufinwe_wins]

29 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

After stewing on it, I think there's a more tin-foil-hat worthy reason why Apple wants to make a completely wireless device: they can better control access to their hardware.

 

By getting rid of the Lightning port, they've eliminated the final entry point to the lower level aspects of the hardware. This would resolve a lot of problems regarding people jailbreaking or the FBI cracking open iPhones. If anything this would require physically disassembling the phone case. And as another layer of "fuck you", there could be an anti-tamper system in place that if triggered, will lock down the phone further. Which would also mean third party repairs are no longer going to be a thing either.

 

Either way, when you've taken the final entry point to the lower-level areas of the hardware, that tells me they don't want anyone but themselves touching their phones anymore.

"Anymore" llolz but yes. 

[AnonymousGuy]

This thread shouldn't be in this section.  This isn't news it's analyst speculation. 

 

My guess would be they're not going to eliminate wired charging, maybe a physical port and data lines but there will still be charge-contacts.  

[vanished]

9 hours ago, Trik'Stari said:

All I can think is "we are talking about apple users here...."

 

I seriously don't understand how people continue to buy their marketing crap.

To be fair, this goes way beyond apple users.  I've seen this kind of mistake from every area of the market.  Someone even tried to say removing the headphone jack on the Note 10 was to get better waterproofing than the Note 9/S9.  The delusions are real.

[Kisai]

23 hours ago, ColeWorld said:

Kuo: Apple to Launch 'Completely Wireless' iPhone Without Lightning Connector and 'iPhone SE 2 Plus' With Touch ID Power Button in 2021

 

Ehh. I don't think so.

 

I don't know if anyone remembers me mentioning it

Quote

The reason why come down to seals. In order for something to be water proof, it would have to have no buttons, no holes in the chassis for sim cards, cables, cameras, microphones, speakers, etc. In a sense, you can never make a water proof phone, not without it not being a phone. You'd have to wirelessly charge it, use only wireless headsets, and it would never be repairable. Air bubbles inside the phone will prevent it form sinking to the bottom, but those bubbles will also create a weakness inside the phone as the water pressure will squeeze the air out and thus crack it.

 

Hence, nothing will ever be water proof.

And then someone thought they were being clever with a comparison to a submarine.

 

Anyway, the problem is two-fold:

 

a) This will not make it water-proof. It at best will be no better water-resistant than previous models, and the only way it becomes water proof is by not having speakers or microphones. Hence you would be required to use a wireless headset which won't even be water-resistant, which is another thing to charge and lose. Hey, remember the Apple Watch?

 

b) This makes it completely unrepairable, you can not even install a sim card in it (which is something Apple would rather not have to begin with, thus we go back to the mid 1990's ESN carrier-locked hell again) thus if you want to switch carriers, you have to THROW AWAY the phone.

 

Look if the phone was maybe $100, I would be like, yeah, let's get rid of the ports, make the screen roll or fold up into it, so your "phone ends up being the size of cigarette lighter. Charge it by leaving it on the charging pad, which is only 30% efficient, and when the battery dies you recycle it and get a new one.

 

Waterproofing a phone is just not going to be possible, they would have to turn the surface of the phone into a speaker and microphone, and while that in theory could be done, it's going to be miserable to use if that's how it's used. Bone conduction maybe. Yet you would still be expected to play games by using a headset or using AirPlay to do anything useful. Camera for video? Useless. Heck, to be waterproof, the cameras would have to be behind the frame, which then the frame could only be transparant (glass), which means they have to make the frame at least as clear as the camera glass.

[vanished]

4 hours ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

After stewing on it, I think there's a more tin-foil-hat worthy reason why Apple wants to make a completely wireless device: they can better control access to their hardware.

 

By getting rid of the Lightning port, they've eliminated the final entry point to the lower level aspects of the hardware. This would resolve a lot of problems regarding people jailbreaking or the FBI cracking open iPhones. If anything this would require physically disassembling the phone case. And as another layer of "fuck you", there could be an anti-tamper system in place that if triggered, will lock down the phone further. Which would also mean third party repairs are no longer going to be a thing either.

 

Either way, when you've taken the final entry point to the lower-level areas of the hardware, that tells me they don't want anyone but themselves touching their phones anymore.

Not even that tin-foil-hat tbh.  We all know they make a lot of money of licensing lightning port accessories, so there would have to be a significant financial reason to finally drop that.  I'm sure this is a significant part of it.  I'd hazard a guess that another aspect is that it'll sell more wireless headphones.  When they removed the jack it was very annoying to many, but in truth, you could technically still use wired ones with the dongle.  Effectively, the USB port absorbed its functionality.  With its removal, that old wound is effectively reopened and made worse.

[vanished]

3 minutes ago, Kisai said:

*snip*

Yes this just adds to what I've said above about how this is not a meaningful upgrade for waterproofing.  Not only have previous phones with far more holes still managed to get a rating, but it's not like the USB port is the last remaining hole and this makes it a sealed slab.  As you say, there is still a sim slot, microphone, speaker, etc.

[Tieox]

Make it only charge when the user yodels.  

 

 

[JoaoPRSousa]

Apple bringing the ease of hacking phones to a whole new level.

[Anomnomnomaly]

The only reason apple do anything, is to increase profit... they've seen that phone sales are slowing so they need to recoup that profit in other areas.  So they remove the headphone jack so they can sell you wireless headphones at 5x the normal price for lower quality sound.  So if any one is actually surprised that they're going to remove the charging port so they can sell you a separate wireless charging pad at 5x the price for slower charging... so that next year they can sell you the even more expensive twice as fast wireless charging pad....  oh and none of these wireless charging pads follow any current standard, so you can't just buy any old cheaper charging pad...  so if there's any one left who is still surprised by any of these please raise your hand,... because I found the gullible card you dropped.

[Kisai]

12 minutes ago, Anomnomnomaly said:

The only reason apple do anything, is to increase profit...

Nope, stop you right there. If they wanted to increase profit at the expense of usability the battery would last 10 minutes and you'd be expected to keep it permanently married to a battery pack.

 

 

Yes, the core principle of capitalism is to make money, but so long as there is competition with your product, you can't ask for the moon, and even if you're the only one who knows how to make your product, if the only people who want your product, can't afford it, then you're just willfully leaving money on the table.

 

If something costs you 100$ to make and you sell it for $200 and you sell 1,000,000 of them, then you've made $200,000,000 in profit. However if your item costs $100 to make and you sell it for $1000, and you only sell 10,000 of them, you've only made $10,000,000 in profit. If your item costs $900 to make and you sell it for $1000, and you only sell 10,000 of them, then you've only made $1,000,000 in profit. The market will always favor making the product affordable for the most amount of people so long as it's a desirable product.

 

If you are explicitly making a luxury item, that mere ownership of the item is a status symbol (which Apple both is and isn't) so you can charge whatever the market will bear for the item. However if your subsequent items are worse, they are not going to buy the new thing over the old thing. That's the risk Apple always makes when they ask a high premium for a product with less functionality than the previous one. Battery Life, Screen Size, and physical ports are things people will readily make a purchasing decision without any regard for brand. If an iPhone has a battery life of 10 minutes, and a Samsung Galaxy has a battery life of two months, not a single person would buy an iPhone. Yet the reality is that Apple sets the battery life at whatever gives the phone approximately the expected usage is, which is about 14 hours talk/21 days standby. 

  

So I have a feeling that the analyst is getting things wrong in a major way. One way of potentially solving the "port" issue is by having things magnetically orient and attach to the phone instead. So they might remove the "hole" in the phone in favor of a USB 3.1 "magnetic" attachment. eg:

That's a USB-C charger cable with a magnetic connection.

https://www.vinpok.com/products/bolt-usb-c-magnetic-cable-for-macbook-pro?

 

So instead of having a hole, there might instead be surface-contact pins that magnetically attach to the phone.

 

Now if that's the case, that isn't a bad idea at all, since the biggest problem with cables is that people break the center part off inside the phone or laptop in the case of USB-C. They end up getting broken because people pull the phone out of their pocket by the cable, or they push their laptop up against a wall/desk.

 

Yet, the 3.5mm connector removals on devices is really just about removing 1950's tech from a device for no other reason than it being old (and analog.) People occasionally destroy the analog amplifier's in devices in 3.5mm jacks due to short circuits or crappy kit. So the ideal thing would have been to switch to some kind of magnetically attached and oriented digital audio connector so that short circuits don't happen, and the DAC volume control can be moved to the headphones/speakers themselves. Now imagine stacking two magnetic attachments on top, the charger first and the headphones second by having each magnetically attached device also act as a USB hub.  

[Anomnomnomaly]

10 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Nope, stop you right there. If they wanted to increase profit at the expense of usability the battery would last 10 minutes and you'd be expected to keep it permanently married to a battery pack.

 

 

 

 

 

1. Re battery strawman... c'mon now you're just being ridiculous. the market will only bear what the consumer will tolerate. Apple are genius marketeers (that was Jobs only real talent) and have convinced the easily led and gullible that their items are the only must have fashion accessories you need to be cool and trendy... Now I'm not having a pop at all apple owners, just the extreme fanboi saddo's. I know people who use apple stuff because they find IOS easy to navigate and use and have struggled with android OS in the past. I'm not gonna bash anyone for having a preference based on the actual tech and ease of use arguments... but if you buy them in an attempt to see more cool, well off and trendy that you are... fair game in my book.  So if the battery only lasted a short period.. well shorter than it already does... the push back would be huge... So I'll compromise and modify my statement to say 'Apple only do anything to make a profit providing the pushback from consumers isn't greater than the profit loss from sales'
2. The magnetic USB charging leads... got them for both my phone and tablet, my mum liked them, so I got her some and then my sister spotted them and go some her self.  they lessen the wear and tear on a charging socket, thus extending it's lifespan... the only downside I've found is that not all are created equal and some can't use fast charging and others can't be used as data cables when hooked up to a PC. Mine and my families can do fast charging but not data. I was actually going to order some more.. but the company selling them on Amazon no longer have stock and other similar ones appear to have minor differences in the pin layout or shape of the magnetic tip.
3. Including the magnetic charging ability within a device... now that would be a smart move... but it would also be just another example of apple taking some one elses idea and trying to claim ownership/invention of it... just like they've done with everything else.

 

 

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Kisai said:

Nope, stop you right there. If they wanted to increase profit at the expense of usability the battery would last 10 minutes and you'd be expected to keep it permanently married to a battery pack.

 

 

Yes, the core principle of capitalism is to make money, but so long as there is competition with your product, you can't ask for the moon, and even if you're the only one who knows how to make your product, if the only people who want your product, can't afford it, then you're just willfully leaving money on the table.

 

If something costs you 100$ to make and you sell it for $200 and you sell 1,000,000 of them, then you've made $200,000,000 in profit. However if your item costs $100 to make and you sell it for $1000, and you only sell 10,000 of them, you've only made $10,000,000 in profit. If your item costs $900 to make and you sell it for $1000, and you only sell 10,000 of them, then you've only made $1,000,000 in profit. The market will always favor making the product affordable for the most amount of people so long as it's a desirable product.

 

If you are explicitly making a luxury item, that mere ownership of the item is a status symbol (which Apple both is and isn't) so you can charge whatever the market will bear for the item. However if your subsequent items are worse, they are not going to buy the new thing over the old thing. That's the risk Apple always makes when they ask a high premium for a product with less functionality than the previous one. Battery Life, Screen Size, and physical ports are things people will readily make a purchasing decision without any regard for brand. If an iPhone has a battery life of 10 minutes, and a Samsung Galaxy has a battery life of two months, not a single person would buy an iPhone. Yet the reality is that Apple sets the battery life at whatever gives the phone approximately the expected usage is, which is about 14 hours talk/21 days standby. 

  

So I have a feeling that the analyst is getting things wrong in a major way. One way of potentially solving the "port" issue is by having things magnetically orient and attach to the phone instead. So they might remove the "hole" in the phone in favor of a USB 3.1 "magnetic" attachment. eg:

That's a USB-C charger cable with a magnetic connection.

https://www.vinpok.com/products/bolt-usb-c-magnetic-cable-for-macbook-pro?

 

So instead of having a hole, there might instead be surface-contact pins that magnetically attach to the phone.

 

Now if that's the case, that isn't a bad idea at all, since the biggest problem with cables is that people break the center part off inside the phone or laptop in the case of USB-C. They end up getting broken because people pull the phone out of their pocket by the cable, or they push their laptop up against a wall/desk.

 

Yet, the 3.5mm connector removals on devices is really just about removing 1950's tech from a device for no other reason than it being old (and analog.) People occasionally destroy the analog amplifier's in devices in 3.5mm jacks due to short circuits or crappy kit. So the ideal thing would have been to switch to some kind of magnetically attached and oriented digital audio connector so that short circuits don't happen, and the DAC volume control can be moved to the headphones/speakers themselves. Now imagine stacking two magnetic attachments on top, the charger first and the headphones second by having each magnetically attached device also act as a USB hub.  

Minor quibble:

“always will”. It’s more of a guideline than a rule.  There are ways around it. They generally involve limiting access to options.  Monopoly and to a much lesser extent duopoly are great for it.  Right now there isn’t one in the smartphone market so you are correct.  It could change though.  It by definition eventually will.  That’s a less get aroundable thing. The whole “there can be only one!” Of capitalism.  Capitalism works great as long as there is competition.  When that ends it starts to suck really really hard though.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Anomnomnomaly said:

 

 

1. Re battery strawman... c'mon now you're just being ridiculous. the market will only bear what the consumer will tolerate. Apple are genius marketeers (that was Jobs only real talent) and have convinced the easily led and gullible that their items are the only must have fashion accessories you need to be cool and trendy... Now I'm not having a pop at all apple owners, just the extreme fanboi saddo's. I know people who use apple stuff because they find IOS easy to navigate and use and have struggled with android OS in the past. I'm not gonna bash anyone for having a preference based on the actual tech and ease of use arguments... but if you buy them in an attempt to see more cool, well off and trendy that you are... fair game in my book.  So if the battery only lasted a short period.. well shorter than it already does... the push back would be huge... So I'll compromise and modify my statement to say 'Apple only do anything to make a profit providing the pushback from consumers isn't greater than the profit loss from sales'
2. The magnetic USB charging leads... got them for both my phone and tablet, my mum liked them, so I got her some and then my sister spotted them and go some her self.  they lessen the wear and tear on a charging socket, thus extending it's lifespan... the only downside I've found is that not all are created equal and some can't use fast charging and others can't be used as data cables when hooked up to a PC. Mine and my families can do fast charging but not data. I was actually going to order some more.. but the company selling them on Amazon no longer have stock and other similar ones appear to have minor differences in the pin layout or shape of the magnetic tip.
3. Including the magnetic charging ability within a device... now that would be a smart move... but it would also be just another example of apple taking some one elses idea and trying to claim ownership/invention of it... just like they've done with everything else.

 

 

Re: 1

Gonna make you define exactly what you mean by the term “straw man”. there are a few definitions of that one floating around and they’re good for different things.

 

re: 2/3

apple did come up with magnetic attachment.  Many years ago.  That one is actually theirs to begin with.  They abandoned it though.  I don’t know why.  I liked it.

[Unixsystem]

On 12/5/2019 at 4:56 PM, RejZoR said:

 I only plug it to my QC 3.0 charger directly if I'm in a hurry and need quick charging.

This is precisely the reason that it's so important to have. Even if the wireless chargers are fast and affordable, it's never going to be able to be as fast as a good wired charger, and certainly not as ubiquitous. In those situations where you need a charge and you don't have a your personal stuff around, it's important to have options. 

 

I don't see any possible upside to this other than theoretically better water resistance (and current phones are practically waterproof already) or just pure aesthetics at the cost of features/options. It's certainly not like it's gonna make the phone cheaper. 

[hishnash]

One option i could see them going to is someting more like the `smart` connector on the ipad that is just a few contacts on the outer edge (supported by magets to help aligned the cable) of the case if you need a wired connection.

[vanished]

1 hour ago, hishnash said:

One option i could see them going to is someting more like the `smart` connector on the ipad that is just a few contacts on the outer edge (supported by magets to help aligned the cable) of the case if you need a wired connection.

There would be certain pros and cons to that vs continuing with lightning or switching to normal USB

 

Pros:

• Takes up less room in the device
• Safe quick disconnect

Cons:

• A non-standard connector
  • It is worth noting thought that their current plug falls into this same category so it wouldn't be a downgrade at least, just continuing the status quo.  It would carry the downside of making everyone switch their accessories just as you would have to if they went to USB but with none of the upside of joining a standard community though.
• Can easily disconnect unintentionally (this has been shown with magnetic adapter cables in the past)

I'm not sure it would be worth it personally, and I don't think it would necessarily be an upgrade, but at least it wouldn't significantly reduce functionality.

[shermantanker]

I call BS... this is a prediction from a market analyst for a phone that is still in the prototyping phase at one of the most secretive R&D companies on the planet. We "usually" don't start getting accurate leaks until phones start hitting the supply chain 4-6 months before release. Apple is a lot of things, but not stupid.