Veteran Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has today claimed in a research note that next year’s iPhone 15 Pro / iPhone 15 Pro Max devices will feature a USB-C port with support for Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.2 (via MacRumors).
For those who aren’t familiar, the Thunderbolt 3 standard can support a bandwidth of up to 40 Gbps, whereas the Lightning connector only supports USB 2.0 speeds of up to 480 Mbps on all iPhone models.
Apple’s next-generation iPhone equipped with a Thunderbolt-enabled USB-C port would offer much faster data transfer speeds with a Thunderbolt cable, making it significantly quicker to transfer large files, such as 48-megapixel ProRAW photos.
If the iPhone 15 Pro models get USB 3.2 support instead, that would still mean transfer speeds of between 5 Gbps and 20 Gbps, which is again much faster than Lightning.
iPad Pro models with the M1 chip and newer support Thunderbolt 3 for bandwidth of up to 40 Gbps.
Fifth-generation iPad Air is capable of 10 Gbps, and the fourth-generation iPad Air and the latest iPad mini are capable of up to 5 Gbps.
The new 10th-generation standard iPad with a USB-C port, however, is still limited to USB 2.0 speeds.
A recent report by TrendForce also suggested that Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro models will get bumped up to 8GB of RAM, and finally ditch the proprietary Lightning port for USB-C.
With the European Council giving its final approval for the European Union’s common charger mandate on Monday, a transition to USB-C on iPhones next year makes so much sense that Apple may as well come out and announce it already.
Apple has been testing iPhones with USB-C ports internally for months now. Earlier reports also pegged the first USB-C iPhone to launch as early as next year.
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This will not happen. Apple never said they will put USB-C on their devices.
You’re right, Apple never said that, at least not in quotes I’ve read, but it could still happen.
They are however forced to do usb-c in Europe for the time being from what I’ve read about else where and was touched upon here as well.