USB-C is way more complicated. It's not a passive cable like the others, it has a small chip in at least one side (sometimes both), that is used to define the specs of the cable.
As I understand it, USB-C is considerably more complex than the first few iterations. The goal of the first few iterations was to become a standard cable and connector, and for that it needed to be simple, to lower the cost of implementation and have a good chance of widespread adoption.
"Considerably more complex" is probably underselling it. A fully capable port has a withering array of signaling standards to support, as well as supporting very high data transfer rates. It's a seriously challenging port to implement. Not something where you can buy a $2 chip and support a dozen ports like USB2.
Even setting aside the electronics, the physical socket is an order of magnitude more expensive. A lot of budget phones still use MicroUSB purely for cost reasons, because that $1 of BoM cost can be better used elsewhere.
Gamer's Nexus Youtube channel recently did a tour of Shenzen and produced an amazing "How it's Made" series on the components making up the majority of a modern gaming PC. One such video covers USB-C cables, here:
Titled: Why USB3 Type-C Isn’t on More Cases | How Cables Are Made Factory Tour
In brief - the cables are way more complicated, with many very thin cores. To the point they require manual labour from people in a lot of spots where simpler cables can be automated. Therefore slow to produce and expensive!
I'm surprised more people didn't complain about the Galaxy S5 charging port, which not only had one of those monstrosities, meaning you have to plug in a standard micro-usb connector into only one specific half (less even) of the whole plug, but it had a door on it that you had to open first.
Sure, your non-Apple smartphone or tablet almost certainly uses it, and maybe your laptop, but anything else? Virtually any other random device that uses a small USB port is far more likely to be micro-B than it is to be C even though C has been common on smartphones for years.
I think it's already insanely fast. If I remember right, it came out a little after USB-3 and it's already has comparable adoption. Of course, it's not going to go as fast as USB-3 since USB-C doesn't use backwards compatible hardware. With regards to random devices that are not USB hosts, it's still preferable to use USB-2 for greatest compatibility unless extra speed is needed like on external storage drives.
The connector is the primary reason I'm eager for wider adoption. The C connector is significantly more robust and doesn't require three attempts to plug in.
It certainly makes sense that such a hardware change slows things down a bit, but USB-C phones have been on the market since 2015 and pretty much standard since not long after that. If I want a USB-C powerbank or flash drive, I pretty much have to buy it online and I'll likely pay a premium for it. If some newly-introduced device in 2019 uses a USB connector to charge its integrated battery (a misfeature in itself if you ask me), it's almost never USB-C.
In short, I don't expect existing product lines to get revised, I expected to see USB-C show up faster on new products that aren't phones or tablets.
> If some newly-introduced device in 2019 uses a USB connector to charge its integrated battery (a misfeature in itself if you ask me), it's almost never USB-C.
Because there's a much smaller market of people that have enough USB-C hosts so that they're able to make full use of such devices. I, for one, don't have a single device with USB-C. In fact, only my company laptop has USB-3; everything else is USB-2. I don't think I'm an outlier on this.
> but USB-C phones have been on the market since 2015 and pretty much standard since not long after that.
On new models, yes, but for many it makes more financial sense to buy phones 2 or 3 generations back to avoid the premiums of having "the latest and greatest", and those are still microUSB. For example, the latest Motorola phone in the G-family is the G7, and the G5 is microUSB. So, there's still a lot of people buying phones with microUSB.
You don't need new hardware for a USB A-to-C cable to be more convenient than a USB A-to-micro-B cable. Almost any scenario benefits from the improved connector.
But there's a cost to switch of being in adapter hell until the market catches up. I'm in that situation, with a USB-C phone, but various micro-B devices I can't find C replacements for.
