Right now, it’s pretty likely that Apple will be equipping its upcoming iPhone 15 family of devices with USB-C in lieu of its proprietary Lightning connector. That being said, it looks like the fruit company may still have another method of making sure that it still makes money from the move to an industry standard. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo notes that while the USB-C standard is capable of faster charging speeds, the company may choose to let only certified cables do so for its phones.
In a Medium post, Kuo predicts that Apple will optimise fast charging for chargers with the Made For iPhone/iPad/iPod (MFi) certification. Though for now, it’s unclear what sort of difference there will actually be in terms of charging speed between a regular USB-C cable that you can buy off the shelf compared to an MFi-certified one.
Kuo also notes that Apple already stands to make a fair bit of money just from the sale of charging plugs. He anticipates that the company will ship between 230 million and 240 million chargers, “thanks to strong replacement demand”. Which makes sense, as anyone still holding on to an older iPhone model, as well as their accompanying charger plug and cable, will be forced to make the switch if they choose to upgrade to this year’s iPhone 15.
And since these no longer come bundled in the box, potential customers will have to buy both the charger plug and the cable separately. On that note, while Apple has 20W and 30W chargers available, Kuo predicts that the former will still be the more popular one. Not surprising, considering the fact that it costs half of that the latter asks for, at least in the local market. That being said, those looking to pick up a Pro model of the iPhone 15 may opt to go for the pricier charger instead. At least if the current iPhone 14 family is any indication, as these support charging speeds of up to 27W, while the base models go only up to 20W.
(Source: Ming-Chi Kuo / Medium)
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