No More Lightning! 2019 iPhone Will Finally Adopt USB-C

My family recently took a trip over to Toronto (you can watch the vlog here). While there, my local friend complained that her phone battery was about to die. My wife pointed out that I had a power bank on me (because of course I did), but there was a problem: my friend has an iPhone. My BlackBerry Motion charges via USB-C. Thus, she was out of luck, but that could change with the 2019 iPhone. Finally!

According to the newest rumors, next year’s iPhone will be abandoning the old Lightning connector in favor of adopting USB-C like the overwhelming majority of other mobile devices today. Apple is no stranger to proprietary technology, but they’ve got plenty of USB-C kicking around on their MacBooks and such these days anyhow.

Three years ago, most computers didn’t have a USB-C port. These days, if you pick up a new laptop or desktop, you probably have at least one USB-C port. In some cases, it’s your only port. (Dongle life!) It’s just the way things are heading.

Last year, there were rumors that the iPhone 8 would ditch the Lightning port in favor of USB-C, but that never came to pass. Now, with the 2019 iPhone, it just might. The transition to USB-C, as Digitimes points out, will be a gradual one.

The 2018 iPhone family to be announced later this year will still feature a Lightning port, but they’ll come bundled with a USB-C adapter to take advantage of fast charging. Then, the 2019 iPhone will move over to USB-C completely. This transition time is reminiscent of what happened with the old 30-pin connector.

This is all just rumor and hearsay for now, of course, but it almost feels like a USB-C iPhone is an inevitability at this point, doesn’t it?