Lightning won’t work on iPhone 15 customers will be told

USB-C to Lightning cable

If you read AppleInsider, you’ve known that USB-C coming to iPhone was inevitable. If you didn’t catch that when it first came to the 2015 MacBook and then was the only port on the 2016 MacBook Pro when it went Thunderbolt 3 across the board, you figured it out when it was made clear that Apple was heavily involved in developing the USB-C spec.

And if you missed all of those, the port coming to the iPad Pro, then the iPad Air, mini, and lower-end iPad surely showed you.

Even so, that point may not be completely clear to the wider base of iPhone 15 buyers, who may not have bought an iPhone since the iPhone 6. And, unsurprisingly, Apple is instructing its salespeople and Apple Store employees that they may need to educate customers on the topic.

USB-C cables rumored to come with the iPhone 15 [X/@KosutamiSan]

According to a “leak” by yeux1122, staff have been told to make sure iPhone 15 buyers have what they need to charge the iPhone 15. The leaker says employees are being reminded that existing Lightning cables won’t work, and USB-A charging adapters can’t be used. This is true with the cable that comes in the box, but untrue when you consider that USB-A to USB-C cables are plentiful.

The post says that Apple employees should recommend one of many USB-C adapters that Apple sells. And of course, MagSafe will still work.

We’ve spoken with a few Apple Retail employees this morning. While it is true that they are being reminded to tell customers about the differences between USB-C and Lightning, as they have been since the iPad Pro first shipped with it years ago, the claims that they are being harangued to sell USB-C peripherals are false.

Meanwhile, on the internet, the breathless “Apple wants to sell you more things” and “why does Apple change chargers so often” takes have already begun. The former is true to some extent given that we live in a capitalistic society, but the latter is not as it has been a full decade since Apple stopped shipping devices with the 30-pin connector.

As far as the former point, focusing on accessory sales through Apple go, it’s likely that licensing fees that the company has collected for about 15 years for MFi will mostly go away over time, since it appears that the iPhone 15 won’t have an authentication chip like the iPhone 14 and earlier do. The sale of third-party peripherals at Apple retail likely won’t make up for this, in all likelihood.

And, it’s not like the release of the iPhone 15 will make all uses for Lightning go up in a desktop blaze. Apple is expected to have a single AirPods Pro update on Tuesday — but nothing else as far as peripherals go. Older AirPods and the the current AirPods Max still will need Lightning to charge, and a new model of the latter isn’t expected until 2024.

There’s also still a bevy of Lightning charging docks floating around, the MagSafe Battery Pack, and more, that use Lightning.

And, we’re pretty sure that the company will still be selling at least one iPhone model that requires it to charge after the iPhone 15 debuts. And then, there’s all the iPhones sold for the last decade that will still need it.

So, like 30-pin before it, the Lightning connector will be with us for a while. And, it’s right and unsurprising that Apple employees have been instructed to keep the customer who doesn’t follow AppleInsider or tech in any real way, up to date.