Rumor Says the Next iPad Pro Won’t Have 3.5mm or Lightning Ports

First they came for our headphone jacks. Now they’re coming for our Lightning ports. Rumor has it that just six years after its arrival, Apple is moving away from its own Lightning cable, starting with the next iPad Pro. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a solid track record, the upcoming tablet will instead use USB Type-C for all of its charging needs.

It seems fishy that Apple would already be ditching its own cable, especially considering the uproar over the diminished use of the 3.5mm jack (which the new iPad Pro will also omit, according to rumor). Chris Welch at The Verge seems to think that this rumor isn’t 100-percent accurate and instead is suggesting that there will be a Lightning-to-USB-C cable and USB-C charger in the box, and that does seem like a likely possibility.

Then again, Kuo usually knows what he’s talking about. If he’s right, this is a lot of change for one generation of iPad and it could prove to be a bit overwhelming for consumers. If you’re used to using your 3.5mm headphone cord and your Lightning cable, continuing that trend with the new iPad Pro will just result in a mess of dongles and nobody wants that. Can you imagine using a 3.5-to-Lightning and then connecting that to a Lightning-to-USB-C? Get out of here.

Apple has an iPhone event coming up next week, but it’s all pretty full with an all-new Apple Watch design and no less than three iPhones, so don’t expect the new tablet to make an appearance.