The Apple iPhone 11 event is rumoured to be held on September 10, 2019, and with it, we will see a new generation of smartphones being introduced. While initial reports suggested that the handset will be an incremental update over last year’s iPhone XS; fresh leaks are suggesting that Apple has quite a few power-packed surprises for us. The upcoming iPhone 11 could come with an unexpected surprise as Apple seeks to unify its product portfolio and gradually move towards employing USB Type-C across all its devices. However, don’t expect Apple to add each and every benefit of this highly-adopted standard in the upcoming iPhone retail packaging.
A report from BGR states that the iPhone won’t be moving to Type-C connectivity this year. While many would gladly welcome the change, the lighting port is a gateway into the iPhone ecosystem that Apple controls. And, if you want the connection you will in all probability have to go through Apple’s certified program to do so, as it involves a payment to Apple, a report by Forbes states.
What Apple will do here is move the USB-C at the opposite end of the iPhone’s cable; the end that goes in the power adapter. Forbes states that instead of a USB-A connection, the charger is expected to move to a USB-C connector, as will the bundled cable. Given Apple has switched over the Mac and MacBook machines to USB-C ports for connectivity, ensuring port compatibility through the entire ecosystem makes practical sense.
Forbes goes on to add, “It also opens up the option of the iPhone using the higher rated USB-C charger that ships with the iPad Pro. That charger provides power at 30W which kicks in the fast-charging of not only the MacBook and MacBook Air machines but also the iPad and the iPhone. This isn’t a new option - the iPhone 8 would happily fast charge with a higher-rated adaptor than the 5W charger shipped in the box.”
And if you want to get faster-charging speeds on your iPhone, you will need to separately purchase this as a standalone adapter from Apple. This has effectively kept the overall retail cost down for Apple but also helped in increasing the average revenue per user as they look to upgrade their slow charger for a speedier solution that’s available in the Apple Store as an alternate purchase.
Forbes rightly points out, “Come the time to launch the new iPhones, I expect Apple will move up to the 18W USB-C charger, talk about ‘the fastest charging iPhone ever’ and ‘the most powerful charger ever shipped with an iPhone’… while carefully forgetting to mention that Apple has a better and more efficient option available and that the iPhone will still come up short when compared to the competition.”
