With the release of iPhone 14 and 14 Pro, many expected Apple to drop the ten-year-old lightning port in favor of USB-C. But that didn’t happen. And with the European Commission requiring all smartphones to adopt USB-C by 2024, its made the iPhone’s transition away from lighting appear inevitable. So why is Apple taking so long to do it? Well, their official answer is for user convenience.

This may sound counterintuitive since it would be more convenient if all modern electronics used the same port. But Apple argues that for the last decade, iPhone customers have been accumulating various lightning cables, adapters, and accessories that would be rendered useless if iPhones switch to USB-C. There is some truth to this.

User accessories

Since, in 2012, the transition away from the 30-pin connector to lightning caused substantial outrage among iPhone users. Who claimed Apple was being greedy by forcing customers to not only buy a new iPhone, but also all new cables and accessories. But could there be something more to Apple’s reluctance to adopt USB-C on iPhone?

Apple tends to be very aggressive with transitions to new standards. They were one of the first to switch from floppy disks to CD drives on iMac, the first to ditch their own FireWire standard on MacBook, and one of the first remove USB-A entirely from their notebooks. And considering the iPad already ditched lightning four years ago, why’s Apple so insistent on keeping Lightning on iPhone? Suspect the answer is money.

Apple actually takes a cut on every Lightning accessory sold by third parties thanks to their MFi [Made For iPhone/iPad/iPod] program. Which requires companies to pay a licensing fee to use Apple’s lightning connector in their products. But this isn’t a one-time payment. Instead, it’s small fee paid for every unit sold forever. No one knows the exact amount, but many estimate the fee to be between two to four dollars, potentially generating hundreds of millions of dollars a year for Apple. Which makes their hesitation to move away from Lightning more understandable. Since they’d instantly lose a one-hundred-million-dollar business.