[culturestate]

My working assumption has always been that Apple makes decisions like this just because they can, frankly.

I would do the same thing if I had the same power to move markets that they do - no need to put up with legacies of the past when I can just force everyone to follow me toward whatever I consider the future to be.

[grepnork]

USB provided device portability over ADB and higher transfer speeds, lightning doubled the data transfer rate available to any other device available in 2011 and stopped ports breaking due to 'fluff', firewire provided faster transfer speeds and networking features.

USB-C provides zero insertion force sockets, a single replacement for any plug of any kind from monitors to networking, 24 pins, and 40Gbps speeds.

Reliability. Speed. Adaptability. User convenience.