Analyst says all 2017 iPhones to feature Lightning ports and fast charging
There has been a bit of confusion going around as to whether or not the new iPhones released this year will feature Lightning ports or not. First, there was an oddly-worded WSJ story that seemed to indicate that Apple was switching to USB-C (although we're not totally convinced about that), but now a respected analyst is claiming the Lightning port is staying but with a new trick.
Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities isn't always right in his predictions about Apple, but he's right often enough to be taken seriously when speaking. Kuo claims (as we guessed) that rather than changing the charging port on the iPhone itself, Apple would be modifying the charging cable included with the phone. So, the iPhone will still feature a Lightning port, but the other end of the cable will be USB-C and the cable will take advantage of the faster charging spec available by using USB-C.
Kuo said all of the new iPhones released in 2017 will feature "Type-C Power Delivery" technology as well as adopt power management from Texas Instruments and power delivery chips from Cypress. Additionally, the flagship iPhone 8 could offer even faster charging by using a new "2-cell L-shaped battery pack design."
One strange bit from Kuo was that he seemed to indicate that although Apple would take advantage of the faster power delivery spec of USB-C, it may not be able to get the data transmission speed upgrade if the iPhone itself still has a Lightning jack. Kuo said this might not be a priority for Apple because transferring files via a cable is a "niche application" these days as most people sync data through the cloud.
source: AppleInsider
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