Android phones have used USB-C cables for many years. The Nintendo switch and PS5 controllers use USB-C cables. Chromebooks use USB-C cables. The alarm clock I just bought uses a USB-C cable. My keyboard uses a USB-C cable. Every MacBook made in the last five years (and most iPads sold in the last couple years) uses a USB-C cable.

It's very possible, if they're nontechnical, that they already have cables that will work with it and don't even realize it (which to be fair might be its own problem, but it's certainly a smaller problem)

Frankly, hardware doesn’t become as obsolete as fast anymore, so there has been little reason to purchase usb-c replacements for our non-usb-c hardware.

At some point soon, perhaps when I get a new iPhone, I am going to have to start buying more USB-C cables.

I will then spend years looking at the end of cables to see what the connector looks like. Just like USB-A and B where I had to make sure they were the right way up, which takes at least three attempts.

At some point, my iPad and iPhone - and my family’s iPads and iPhones - will all be dead, and replaced with USB-C versions.

We are quite good at hanging onto devices until they can no longer have new safe batteries (installed by Apple) or have no real use, so this could be around ten to fifteen years.

This drive by the EU seems to mainly talk about power adapters, and how it’s a waste to have separate ones, but all the power adapters I use for phone and iPad have USB-A sockets.

With USB-C on both ends of cables, I expect I’ll have to buy some new power adapters soon. I will then have to have two adapters everywhere (one for my USB-A to Lightning cables), or buy lots of USB-C to Lightning cables for the transition period. To go with the USB-C cables for post transition period.

I’m not at all inconvenienced by Lightning and not at all desperate to have USB-C, and USB-C will be replaced by USB-D in a few years, probably many years before the Lightning devices have given up, to USB-C, so I will probably carry several Lightning to USB-A, several Lightning to USB-C, several Lightning to USB-D, several USB-C to USB-C, several USB-C to USB-D and several USB-D to USB-D.

* not counting the Switch. I’m not gambling with that - it gets its original PSU only.

Recent lightning cables already have USB-C instead of USB-A at the other end; that's not a part of the EU mandate as far as I know. In fact I'd bet USB-A would be explicitly allowed, because it's a standard port.

Or what happens is they stop running the latest OS, then newer apps you might need stop supporting old OSes. Old versions of apps might even stop working with whatever servers. That or the latest runnable OS doesn't work with whatever 2FA bs you need to download free apps from the App Store, as was the case with the iPad 2 last I tried.

I do have a couple of these, from my old MBP and my iPad Pro. What I don't have many of are USB-C bricks. I have tons of USB-A bricks that work with all of my micro USB devices (wireless keyboard, Beats, bike lights, etc.) and my Lightning devices (iPhone, several iPads, several AirPods).

If all of these devices move over to USB-C and don't include bricks, I'll end up going out and buying half a dozen of them to replace the ones we have around our house currently. We'll also need cables, and in all this will probably cost $100. Not a huge deal, but not something I'm looking forward to shelling out for, especially since there's no gain from my perspective.

> Every MacBook made in the last five years (and most iPads sold in the last couple years) uses a USB-C cable.

Current Apple laptops come with USB-C to MagSafe cables. They are USB-C in the sense that they fit USB-C bricks, but the cable itself (which is very nice/braided, and hopefully will last a long time) is single-purpose. It won't work in anything but an Apple laptop.

Maybe this'll broaden that perspective a little: Apple devices since the iPhone 8 support USB-PD with C-to-Lightning cables now, and it's much faster. Decent USB-C chargers are a noticeable quality-of-life improvement.

Also, if this is already available with USB-C to Lightning cables, is there an additional speed bump if the iPhone itself has USB-C?

I also just realized this means I'll have to buy new power banks, since the old ones are USB-A. That's another $40-60 total.

You don't have to buy new power banks, either. And really, you don't have to buy new adapters either, if you don't want to! A-to-C is supported for both data and charging. iPads already fall back to Apple's old fast charging over A-to-C when your adapter or power bank supports it, I don't think there's a reason an iPhone wouldn't. It won't be as fast as USB-PD, but that upgrade's a choice.

Your concerns are definitely not nothing, but I think you're really overthinking it. It's not a step change, you can do it gradually, and when you go to USB-C on both ends, you'll get something for doing it. (USB-PD is currently available with C-to-Lightning cables, but you've said you don't have any of those right now, so I would assume it's not a big deal to you and you will realize the benefits when you upgrade.)

But regardless, it sounds like there is no additional speed advantage to having USB-C to USB-C versus the currently available USB-C to Lightning. Is that right? As for getting a bunch of dongles, that's one solution, but means spending more money.

This has got to be one of the best tech people response to a non-tech people question ever.

Most non-tech people living in Apple's ( or more precisely iPhone ) ecosystem simply dont have any USB-C cables lying around.

Dont most people keep some devices permanently connected to the cable it came with though? I don't use my monitors USB-C cable to charge anything else. I don't use the quest link cable for anything but the quest. In theory it's "one cable for every device" but in practice the only place that happens is in a backpack power bank or car. Every device comes with its own cable and whether the new iPhone comes with a USB or lightning cable all it does is add one more cable to your collection.

But when you tell them that the thing they plug in and out every day is changing cables that ruffles feathers.

And those USB C MacBook cables definitely don’t support data transfers. The newest ones come with MagSafe

USB-C appeals to techies, people with an engineering mindset, because it's an elegant solution. It's one connector, with graceful handling of different use-cases from charging, through peripherals, to high-speed high throughput data transfer.

But practically speaking, I've bought several HDMI adapters, had a hard time choosing a mouse that had USB-C a few years ago, have bought a new charger, lost MagSafe on my laptop. This is how most people view it, and it's hard to convince them otherwise, and rightly so!

Probably the biggest thing people don't think about is how rare USB-C hubs are. I don't mean the ones that adapt to other ports (if you thought of that first, it illustrates my point), I mean one that takes one USB-C and gives you more. For years after 2016, the chip to make this simply didn't exist. Even now, it's expensive. For this reason, it actually makes sense to use USB-A accessories even if your PCs take -C, cause you can always get more -A ports for cheap. So companies still make -A accessories, and even a lot of -C ones tend to come with an A-to-C cable in the box (and no -C to -C cable!).

Non-tech people tend to understand these things without knowing it. They see new port, they say no.

Lightning appears to be much more robust (anecdotally watching friends devices, I have had few Apple iDevices). Mechanically and electrically, I like the lightning connector (although I loath proprietary shit generally).

To this people this change effectively removes what's familiar and understood for something unknown, but I think it will still be for the better if eventually they will only perceive it as "the cable" that just works with pretty much anything.

Those "non technical people" want the same thing that the "tech heads" want: One type of cable that is compatible with all their devices. They just don't necessarily realize that they have already organized their lives in a way that excludes mismatched cables.

I would be just as happy to have everything switch to lightning. I really don't care what it is I just want all my cables to be the same.

People just don't realize what are standard cables vs what are bespoke for their application, and this sort of thinking has bitten me personally as well.