Apple, we may have a problem
Monday, October 1, 2012 at 2:59AM Remember I ordered a couple of cables from eBay and asked the vendor if he knew whether they'd work? Well last night I got a message back from him saying that his supplier could not make them work because of the added complexity (read verification/validation chip) and that he would be refunding my money.
I'm not as concerned about the cable as I am about docks and so on. Unless Apple is licensing the connector, we have a problem.
Bob wrote the comment above and he highlights what could be a potential problem on the horizon. Let's hope that the worst does not happen, but I do wonder if Apple has studied the huge and highly lucrative iPhone accessory market and thought "We will have most of that thank you."
If Apple refuses to licence the technology, that will leave only Apple to make docks, cradles and charging cables. The choice would be limited and no doubt expensive, as we have already seen with the prices of the Lightning cables so far. Apple, we may have a problem...
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Reader Comments (11)
Sounds like the situation which already exists with power supplies for the Mac laptops...
That's the pessimists view, they would be absolutely crazy to cut out the accessory market, since that is a major driving force for the iphone/ipad ecosystem.
However I have no doubt they will insist all manufacturers meet the "made for iphone" certification.
A while back when I was looking for a charging cradle/dock for my iPhone 4, I saw one where you threaded your own cable through the back and pushed it through a plastic/rubber grommet that held it in place. I can that sort of thing happening quite often for companies that don't want to license, assuming Apple does license.
I agree that they'd better start licensing soon because people are going to get very annoyed if they can't dock their iPhone 5 beside their bed as they've always done in the past.
I'll paste what I said today in the other thread, as this one's more current:
Question is, what possible reason could there be for putting the chip in the connector rather than in the iPhone?
Only reason I can think of is to stop others making them so Apple can charge what they like.
I know Thunderbolt cables have chips inside them, so perhaps there's another reason. Knowing Apple probably not; they encrypted the on-phone iTunes database so that users were forced to use iTunes rather than the, to some, superior solutions others have created.
To add to what I said before, Apple will undoubtedly licence the tech for docks but may take a significant chunk of every dock sale. No doubt they'll say they're doing it so that only Apple-approved and tested docks are available and so users are protected from buying an inferior product. I'm sure most of you have bought defective iPhone docks and will be glad of Apple's diligence in this area...
Good news for Android, as I'm sure a lot of disgruntled manufacturers will start shifting their focus.
Chip in cable to save space.
Chip in cable to earn Apple money but also control quality and application use.
I have a few docks. But I'm getting the 30 pin cable adapter. Just one. I really like the reversible lightning cable despite some cost issues.
Save space? They have a custom-designed A6 in there; they could've added the circuitry and not even noticed. I'm sure they have other custom IO chips in there too which could have accomodated the functionality. We don't actually know what functionality those chips provide; they may be purely to prevent third-parties making cables and accessories without Apple's approval (and giving Apple a cut).
"Earn money" and "control" sound more like Apple.
Accessories itself is a whole new market for Apple and my guess is that they will explore it. As I see it, if you can buy a Apple product, you can manage to afford some accessories - remember, you get top quality products.
Sorry but as as a non iPhone user I can't understand why people find these cables so attractive? What is it?
Personally they would drive me insane. I like the fact that per European regulations every phone has to be micro-usb. Finally someone is making sense. I can use my spare HTC chargers on the S3 without any issue. I can use the spare micro-usb cable at work without any issues. And am delighted to see HTC considering not including a charger in new phones - will help to bring down manufacuring costs and might help the environment a bit (well at least offset the fact that iPhones in Europe are sold with an micro-usb cable adaptor to get around the law).
So understanding that - what is the attraction? It is different and if you are stuck somewhere else you generally can't just borrow a charger unless someone has an iPhone one.
microusb has been a big win for me. Nokia changed charger design three times I think, each to reduce the size of the connector but the rate of change was quite slow.
On the one hand a reversible connector is great. But it's not novel
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/double-u-usb-port-works-both-ways-27-01-2011/
I found this amusing:
http://pic.epicfail.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/yahoo-answers-reply-win-milk-sheep-iphone5.jpg
From memory, it's not a regulation, but rather a suggested standard; I'd need to look up the details, but I think that it's up to individual manufacturers to decide whether to go with this or not.
Here we go: http://9to5mac.com/2012/10/03/report-apple-must-approve-manufacturers-for-third-party-lightning-connector-products-will-begin-in-november/
Gotta love the commenters saying how great it is that only Apple-approved docks will be available. They could have just introduced a certification process with a sticker like other companies (e.g. MS) have done, but no, they have to have complete control.
I wonder if manufacturers who also make Android docks will find their approval takes a little longer...MS and Intel both did stuff like that in the past.
If you needed any further proof of whose phone Apple thinks it is, well it certainly isn't yours.