The battle for power: Lightning vs. MagSafe
- The Lightning connector was introduced on September 12, 2012.
- Apple first featured wireless charging on the iPhone 8 and X in 2017.
- Instead of moving to USB-C, the next iPhone is likely to drop the port entirely, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The Lightning connector was introduced on September 12, 2012 with the iPhone 5 to replace its predecessor, the 30-pin dock connector. The Lightning port was revolutionary at the time, with its slick new design, but there was one big flaw. User reports from a 2013 Apple discussion form reveal that the cable would start to fray randomly during normal everyday use. The outer coating would start to loosen, tear, and ultimately expose its wiring. Apple fixed the issue by simply making the cable thicker.
About 5 years later in 2017, the iPhone 8 and X were released, both featuring wireless charging — a feature that was new to Apple devices. At the time, wireless charging was a big thing, and just about every mobile device manufacturer had already incorporated wireless charging into their devices.
Now with all of that said and done, this brings us to present day. Apple released a new type of MagSafe technology in October of last year. This version was not for MacBooks, it was for the iPhone. This was released alongside the iPhone 12 lineup, which has magnets built into the frame of the device — to hold the MagSafe wireless charger in place on your iPhone 12. This new type of MagSafe technology, and all the positive feedback it was getting may inspire Apple even more to consider the idea of a portless iPhone.
From several reports, it seems like Apple is hoping to achieve a full range of portless iPhones by 2022-2023. Many analysts expect Apple to greatly expand their MagSafe technology on the iPhone, which will allow them to create smaller, lighter and more capable iPhones than ever before.
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