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The history of the development of mobile phone charging cables
In the long run, the development of science and technology is endless. From the timeline, the development of digital products has a very long process, but in recent decades has entered a period of rapid development of mobile phones.
After the Android mobile phone adopts the USB-C interface protocol, the current mobile phone field is roughly divided into two camps: one is the Android device represented by the Android system, and almost all of them use the USB-C interface with faster charging speed; The other is the Lightning lightning interface that Apple is involved in developing.
In the previous long period of time, Apple's lightning interface has an absolute advantage.
Features are smaller and more convenient than Apple's choice of 30Pin Dock interface, and do not have to consider the front and back when plugging into the phone. It can be understood that this interface supports a maximum current carrying capacity of 2.4A, and the transmission speed is in the standard of USB 2.0. It is a little lower in terms of standards, but the actual performance and experience are very good, and it has now become the standard interface of iPhone phones. But what cannot be ignored is that there is a very fatal shortcoming in the Lightning data line, that is, the life is very short, and the price is very high.
In the following time, Apple's development speed for charging technology is not as fast as Android mobile phone charging technology. On the contrary, Apple's charging technology has been stagnant. With the continuous development of the USB-C interface, the transmission rate and charging speed have long been in front of the Lightning interface. Android system into the Type-C era, this interface will be larger than Lightning, all support front and back charging, but the charging power and Lightning gap is particularly large.
At present, Apple's charging speed is still in place, and the direction of Android system manufacturers has been towards 240W fast charging, but Apple is still only more than 20W.
Why has Apple always used the Lightning charging interface?
In terms of the number of users, Apple has a huge user base of billions in the world, which has become a reason why Apple can stick to the lightning interface. In the case of huge penalties, Cook still does not use a unified charging interface, and there are many reasons behind it.
A very important reason is that Apple will lose an extremely large amount of profits, Apple can earn more than $5 billion in revenue from Apple's mobile phone accessories every year, that is to say, MIFI certification officials and accessories are lucrative, and another reason is that Apple wants to adopt a subversive charging method, that is, cancel the charging interface and directly use wireless chargers. The last reason is to adhere to environmental protection, for Apple to adhere to the concept of environmental protection, Apple has not only made a lot of moves to reduce allocation. The iPhone12 did not send a charger, and the iPhone13 canceled the packaging film. For the lightning interface, Apple also firmly believes that after the unified interface, a large number of electronic resources will be wasted, and a lot of electronic waste will be generated from it, which is not good for environmental protection.
But for environmental reasons, it may well be a high-sounding excuse for Apple.
The benefits of adhering to the lightning interface are very significant, to know that Apple's lightning interface is the need for a special chip, very strict, can only be used by MIF certified accessories, otherwise the connection fails.
If a third-party accessory dealer wants to enter the Apple ecological market and wants to provide consumer products to Apple users, it must pay a large amount of MIF certification fees to Apple. This is just one of the benefits Apple has gained by sticking to the Lightning interface, and more benefits include the degree of adaptation of ecological products.
Apple uses the lightning interface in ecological products such as iPads, AirPods, etc., and has been specially developed by Apple. It has a very good degree of adaptation, and the data transmission is relatively stable. The reason why Apple is reluctant to make changes is because for so many years, Apple has become a major way for users to improve the experience of the ecological products they have built.
As for one more point, it is very critical. If Apple joins the Type-C camp, it is not a rival to Android manufacturers at all, because the distance between technology development in this regard is too far. For example, on the road of fast charging, many manufacturers such as Xiaomi and OPPO are developing 100w fast charging technology, but Apple has no achievements in the field of fast charging, nor has any advantages.
To know the current trend of mobile phone use, it is that mobile phones will become more and more intelligent. Its charging time will become shorter and shorter, and at the same time, the use time of mobile phones in high power consumption will become longer and longer, resulting in everyone's life becoming more and more convenient and work more and more efficient.
Back to the field of fast charging technology, the possibility of mainland manufacturers sharing fast charging technology with Apple is almost non-existent, so for Apple, its choice is to independently develop this road.
But things always have to be in the best places to think, unified charging interface is a lot of benefits.
Benefits of a unified charging interface
On June 7 of this year, the European Union has passed legislation on universal charging solutions and reached an agreement. The agreement indicates that by the fall of 2024, USB Type-C will become a common charging port standard for all mobile phones, tablets and digital cameras and e-readers in the European Union, other charging interfaces will not allow the emergence of microUsb, Apple Lightning, etc. Other electronics companies will have two years to transition their full range of products to USB Type-C.
Compared with the previous view that Apple resisted the unified interface, MCworld proposed a new point of view, that is, it still believes that the demise of the Lightning interface is a good thing for Apple.
Although it should affect revenue, it is an increase in customer volume, because if Apple follows the Android camp to unify the USBC interface, it means that competitors' customers are likely to switch to Apple's side.
In other words, after the unification of the USBC interface, those users who use Android mobile phones may be replaced by Apple mobile phones because of the same charging cable and charger, and the demise of the Lightning interface is also a relief for Apple.
Just after EU legislation agreed to make USB Type-C the standard for charging ports. Recently, U.S. senators have begun to promote similar legislation. The U.S. differs from European Union law, and U.S. senators have not asked the Commerce Department to include USB Type-C in a common charging standard. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also made a move.
Under pressure, how will Apple choose? Whether Apple wants to or not, the unified interface has become inevitable, and what Apple needs to do is to independently develop and not let itself fall behind with other manufacturers.