[vineyardmike]

Apple said from the day that they made lightning cables that it would be supported for 10 years. They literally contractually guaranteed that to third party manufacturers in exchange for them creating a massive availability of cables for Apple users.

The EU “forced them” to switch to the standard they helped develop (USB C) on the 11th year after developing lighting. I’m sure it was all the EUs doing.

[monocasa]

I haven't seen Apple say anything like that, all I saw were analysts saying that Apple's long term commitment to the format meant that you could expect a decade or so of lifetime like the previous 30pin connector.

Do you have a citation for what you're saying?

[systemtest]

Phil Schiller announced Lightning as the modern connector for the next decade back in September 2012 during the release of the iPhone 5.

[ciupicri]

Here's a video of that moment: https://youtu.be/CqOZBearWd4

[monocasa]

That's not a contract.

[xp84]

Shocker, they never responded to back up their claim!

[kristofferR]

https://www.wsj.com/video/apple-executive-on-adoption-of-usb...

Apple argues that the law was dumb environmentally due to many people having Lightning-cables that wouldn't work in the future, so they obviously can't have intended to do the same changeover at the same time as the EU forced them to

[xp84]

That was hilarious, as though Lightning cables on average outlasted the devices they were used with. Meanwhile in the real world, Apple’s delicate “strain relief” started to fray and tear in 6-12 months of use, and thanks to their weird unnecessary DRM chip for MFi enforcement, third-party Lightning cables tended to become flaky for purely DRM reasons in a few months.

Show me anyone who had more than a couple of working Lightning cables left when they eliminated their last Lightning device.

[pavlov]

Chinese cable manufacturers don't need contract guarantees to compete for the lucrative iPhone user market...

[vineyardmike]

The cables have proprietary chips that need to be purchased from apple. And the target is companies that join their "Made For Apple" (MFI) program.

[fennecfoxy]

Those proprietary chips were cloned very quickly...

[HugoTea]

There are many things they do which Apple argues benefits their users, but end up benefitting themselves in suspiciously manipulative ways. I'm not shocked they entered a 10 year contractual agreement, and that just so happened to allow them to make a lot of profit by using a proprietary cable.

They lock down individual parts to device serial numbers, this helps prevent fraudulent repair services with poor quality parts, it also ensures Apple is always involved in the repair process and they can make a lot of money on that.

They use a proprietary RAM design, this significantly improves hardware speeds but also stops you replacing or upgrading the modules yourself. They also just happen to charge a serious premium on RAM capacity, and don't sell the modules on their own. Even if a third-party did manufacture the modules and sell them separately, they are also locked down to serial numbers.

This is Apple's bread and butter, enforcing consumer hostile practices and spinning it into a benefit, usually filled with half-truths to muddy the waters. In all of these situations, it's possible to do better by the consumer but why would they? At the end of the day they're here to make money, as much as they possibly can, and they're uncontested in their own vender hardware, doesn't mean we shouldn't call them out for their awful practices every time they appear.

[Aefiam]

The iphone could have had both usbc and lightning, so if they cared about that they would have done it.