iPhone 8 May Not Ditch The Lightning Connector Entirely

There have been a lot of conflicting reports about Apple’s next-generation iPhone lately and since nothing has been officially confirmed at this point in time, we’re going to see similar reports in the weeks to come. It was reported earlier today that the iPhone 8 is going to ditch the Lightning connector in favor of the USB Type-C port but now an analyst is contradicting that report by saying that the iPhone 8 may not ditch the Lightning connector entirely.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the iPhone 8 would replace the Lightning connector with a USB Type-C port that’s the standard choice for new flagship smartphones in 2017.

Apple has traditionally stuck to its proprietary ports for the iPhone so it goes without saying that it would be a big shift for the company to adopt USB Type-C. However, it would make sense, given that the 12 inch MacBook and the new MacBook Pro models all feature a USB Type-C port and this would mean that a single cable could then be used to charge all three devices.

Blayne Curtis, a managing director at Barclays, believes that the iPhone 8 is not going to ditch the Lightning connector and that Apple will instead ship a Lightning to USB Type-C adapter in European markets in order to comply with the European Commission’s common charger initiative. The adapter would likely be similar to Apple’s Lightning to microUSB adapter which lets an iOS device with a Lightning port to be charged or synced using a microUSB cable.

Whether or not this will actually happen remains to be seen. It’s too soon to be sure what Apple is going to do with the iPhone 8 at this point in time considering the fact that the new iPhones are not going to be unveiled until the third quarter of this year.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: iPhone 8