14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is getting ready to kill off the Lightning connector, but a leak this weekend provides us with a closer look at an early version that never made it to production.
Posted by AppleDemoYT on Twitter, the photos show that the Lightning connector wasn’t supposed to be reversible, as the prototype came with an indicator to let users know how they should plug it into their iPhones.
Needless to say, it’s pretty clear the company has managed to improve the design because a non-reversible design would have made it a nightmare to use a Lightning cable.
The approaching demise
Without a doubt, the Lightning cable has caused quite a lot of controversy since its debut on the iPhone 5.
Not only that users were frustrated to have a different cable than for their Android devices, but some authorities, including the European Union, have requested Apple on several occasions to switch to a universal connector rather than stick with a proprietary design.
This obviously never happened, but Apple is now believed to be working on a much bigger change: the demise of Lightning once and for all.
By the looks of things, Apple is working on a fully wireless iPhone that would come without a Lightning connector, as the company wants everything to happen without a cord. In other words, this iPhone would rely on wireless data transfers and charging, though it’s still not clear how those whose cars come with wired CarPlay would use such a device.
For the time being, people familiar with the matter say the portless iPhone would make its way to the market in 2021, but it’s believed Apple wants to embrace this strategy for just one model in its entire lineup. The switch to portless would thus happen gradually, with all iPhones to give up on Lightning at some point in the future.