[Zak]

Slightly more OT: why is USB-C adoption so slow?

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.

[jolmg]

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.

[Zak]

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.

[jolmg]

> 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.

[Zak]

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.

[madeofpalk]

I think adoption has been pretty decent actually. My Sony headphones charge via USB-C - that's pretty good to me!