Apple Is Never Switching From Lightning To USB-C In The iPhone

Seriously, stop with these rumors already.

- Michael Simon

Since it had been several days without an iPhone rumor (go. macworld.com/i18r), DigiTimes piped up in mid-June (go. macworld.com/iusc) with a purported salacious scoop about next year’s iPhone. According to the site, Apple “will likely have its 2019 series of iPhones come with USB Type-C support,” replacing the nearly six-year-old Lightning port.

In that time between Lightning’s arrival in 2012 and the upcoming 2018 iPhones, USB-C has risen to a position of prominence on many of Apple’s products. It’s a mainstay on Apple’s MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac computers, and nearly every Android phone maker has adopted the symmetrical port as the charging solution on its handsets. USB-C is vastly superior to all other forms of USB, and it comes as no surprise that it’s taken over the finicky microUSB and less-versatile USB 3.1 ports on phones and PCs.

But this isn’t the first time this rumor has circulated and it’s no more credible now than it was then. Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported (go.macworld.com/cvsc) that the as-yet-unnamed iPhone X would use a “USB-C port for the power cord and other peripheral devices instead of the company’s original Lightning connector.” That turned out to be false (as did its prediction that the iPhone X would have an outwardly curved screen).