I mean, that really is a bit of a facepalm moment. They bang on endlessly about their sustainability efforts but then prompt people to go out and buy a second cable to use one of this generation of phone's key new features?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 15's USB-C Port: 4.5W Charging for Accessories, USB 3.2 Gen 2 for Pro Models, and More
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Oh, please stop whining about Apple not including a higher spec USB-C cable.
Let's consider the below calculations for 10.000.000 Pro phones:
Cost of TB cable: 5$ --> cost for 10 mil. phones --> 50 mil. $
Out of the 10 mil. owners probably 10% will need a TB cable.
Out of those, probably 10% will buy a TB cable from Apple --> 1% of phone buyers.
So Apple can expect to sell 1% x 10 mil. --> 100.000 TB cables.
Apple sells a 2m TB cable for 40$, cost is 5$ so profit per cable is 35$.
They would make 35$ x 100.000 = 3.5 mil. $ profit from the cable sales.
Now, as a company, what would you choose: a 50 mil. $ cost or a 3.5 mil $ profit?
Apple will manufacture at least 30 mil. Pro phones, so multiply the above by 3.
You need to understand that Apple is a commercial company and it's primary scope is to make profit for it's shareholders.
Let's consider the below calculations for 10.000.000 Pro phones:
Cost of TB cable: 5$ --> cost for 10 mil. phones --> 50 mil. $
Out of the 10 mil. owners probably 10% will need a TB cable.
Out of those, probably 10% will buy a TB cable from Apple --> 1% of phone buyers.
So Apple can expect to sell 1% x 10 mil. --> 100.000 TB cables.
Apple sells a 2m TB cable for 40$, cost is 5$ so profit per cable is 35$.
They would make 35$ x 100.000 = 3.5 mil. $ profit from the cable sales.
Now, as a company, what would you choose: a 50 mil. $ cost or a 3.5 mil $ profit?
Apple will manufacture at least 30 mil. Pro phones, so multiply the above by 3.
You need to understand that Apple is a commercial company and it's primary scope is to make profit for it's shareholders.
Most people won’t be transferring data to/from their device via a cable.
There always is a reason for a law and the reason is reducing waste. The next thing Apple and other manufacturers will have to do is making the battery replaceable, but that probably again will not happen before there is a new EU law.
The big win is when these devices stop coming with cables. Think of all the millions of cables that won’t need to be manufactured as people will just use their existing cables.
Well, I would bet it’s way less than $5. If it’s $5, it would be a no brainer NOT to include it. Probably the worst cost/usage ratio. How many people will transfer data over cable? 0.1%? 0.01%? Of course it helps Apple to build the narrative that the iPhone is used for crazy video production, but the whole USB-C thing is pretty irrelevant for most users.
But it doesn't need to be a Thunderbolt cable to take advantage of USB gen 3.2.
What Apple has done is oddly unique - they've intentionally designed a USB-C cable that is limited to 2.0 speeds, despite the fact that pretty much any other USB-C cable in the world has at least 3.0 speeds.
I'm guessing the reason that they've taken this approach is because they didn't want to produce two different spec cables for their iPhones.
guys hold a second. You know what, if you want a hi-speed USB-C cable, nobody made it soft and thin and fine like apple's slow 2.0 cable. I'm already bought two additional for my iPad and C devices.
Pretty much all usbc charging cables are USB2. There’s nothing unique or special about it.
Also, Pro users already have fast cables because they use external drives and whatever stuff
Agreed.
I just cleaned my office and found 14 MicroUSB cables.
Why? Because every device came with one. Now I have way too many. And I never needed that many. Plus I rarely use a device with MicroUSB anymore. So now I'm stuck with all these cables. And I'm just one person.
On the one hand... it sounds crazy to not include a cable in the box. People would say the company is cheap.
But on the other hand... how many cables does one person need? When will enough be enough?
At least USB-C will be the standard for a while. But once I have collected enough USB-C cables... I don't want one included in every box. I hope we can get there.
Last edited:
And if Apple can charge >$1000 for a phone, surely they can swing 5$ in less profit and environmental savings by including a cable not following a 10 year old standard
What’s more damaging to the environment; including cables that require more material to manufacture but won’t be used by most consumers, or including a cable that requires less material but also means some users need to buy an additional cable?
That’ll certainly be an interesting study for someone to do.
And this article does not even mention actual speeds for the $799+ regular plain ol' iPhone 15 and 15 Plus.
Those cast-off children of the PROs, are outfitted with a USB-C shaped connector port, but wired so that it will only EVER transfer data at the year 2000 USB 2.0 specification. \
Look it up yourself on the Apple Spec pages. Finally they come clean (you know... that the fabulous Lightning connector of iPhone 14 and all prior was also USB 2.0 speed rated as well. For-ev-er.
Those commentators who are truly apple fanboy apologists try to make light of it by saying just go and buy a better cable -- well one should not have to do so, and two, that only works if you buy the iPhone 15 Pro. No cable no matter how expensive will not make an iPhone 15 or 15 Plus transfer data faster than USB 2.0. E-v-e-r.
https://www.apple.com/iphone-15/specs/
Sigh.
Apple you really show your true greed colors here.
Those cast-off children of the PROs, are outfitted with a USB-C shaped connector port, but wired so that it will only EVER transfer data at the year 2000 USB 2.0 specification. \
Look it up yourself on the Apple Spec pages. Finally they come clean (you know... that the fabulous Lightning connector of iPhone 14 and all prior was also USB 2.0 speed rated as well. For-ev-er.
Those commentators who are truly apple fanboy apologists try to make light of it by saying just go and buy a better cable -- well one should not have to do so, and two, that only works if you buy the iPhone 15 Pro. No cable no matter how expensive will not make an iPhone 15 or 15 Plus transfer data faster than USB 2.0. E-v-e-r.
https://www.apple.com/iphone-15/specs/
https://www.apple.com/iphone-15-pro/specs/
And that 480 Mbits/sec -- that is a MAXIMUM throughput in IDEAL LAB conditions. Not what you will find in everyday real life home and office.
Sigh.
Apple you really show your true greed colors here.
Which is about what I said a couple pages ago, high speed needs more twisted wire pais = double thickness. They want a nice thin looking cable for charging as standard. Same goes for laptops, it's why their charger cables are usb 2 too.
Why include one in every box for the 10% of people who would really make use of it? Wouldn't this be waste?
Also, many of those 10% already have the right cable from the device they are connecting to.
Yup. And this move is very strategic. Put bare minimum quality accessories in the box. Soon sales numbers will show that people buy better quality on the side and you can argue that it can be removed from the box and the environment will benefit (big lie). Profit!
Why put outdated **** in the box? Why at all put anything in the box? It’s not good for profit. That Apple puts old standard cheap crap in the box shows that it’s a big money grabbing exercise. It’s good for my APPL shares. So please pay more everyone so I can profit. Thank you.
Just don’t claim that Apple is all about providing the best of the best (for a premium price). Cause it isn’t.
what a wrong statement this is.
Every Samsung Galaxy phone with a C port has shipped with a 2.0 only cable.
Every MacBook that used USB-C as its main charging interface and came with a CToC cable (including the M1 Air) shipped with 2.0 cables.
Same goes for iPads. Even the ones with thunderbolt ports ship with 2.0 cables.
Not to mention any accessories or extra devices with C cables are almost always limited to 2.0 speed.
The *only* product that I ever purchased that came by default with a USB 3.2 cable was an external Sanddisk SSD.
That’s literally it.
Almost all android phones, even ones with higher spec ports, ship with 2.0 cables. Because all of these companies know 99% of people use the cable for charging… and nothing else.
Apple is doing absolutely nothing unique here
Last edited:
I just double checked, even the $1200+ (same price as iPhone 15 Pro Max) Galaxy S22Ultra has a USB-C3.0 port.
But guess what it ships with?
Hint: it’s the same speed cable that ships with the iPhone. Nothing more special than a USB-C2.0 charging cable.
But guess what it ships with?
Hint: it’s the same speed cable that ships with the iPhone. Nothing more special than a USB-C2.0 charging cable.
The idea is that you include in the box what people need. We already don’t include headphones and charging bricks because people don’t need them. Once there are enough USBC to USBC charging cables in the wild they will also be removed. The only thing people will need when they buy a new phone is the phone itself; the rest of the stuff is surplus to requirements.
This is from Google technical specifications on the $1800 pixel fold:
Buttons and portsUSB Type-C® 3.2 Gen 2
In the box1 m USB-C® to USB-C cable (USB 2.0)
Buttons and portsUSB Type-C® 3.2 Gen 2
In the box1 m USB-C® to USB-C cable (USB 2.0)