Earlier this week, Apple debuted its new iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lineups, and as expected by most observers, the Cupertino firm dropped the handsets’ Lightning port in favor of USB-C. Apple had long been expected to make the move, mostly due to the new regulation now in place in the EU and in other countries, which requires all electronics manufacturers to use “standardized” ports on their devices, namely USB-C.
Since it was generally accepted that Apple would make the move to USB-C, the rumor mill concentrated on whether or not the iPhone 15’s USB-C implementation would require Made for iPhone (MFi) certified cables and chargers to allow for faster charging and data transfer speeds.
As reported by ArsTechnica’s Andrew Cunningham, there shouldn’t have been any questions about the iPhone 15’s USB-C implementation as Apple has been shipping fully USB-C compliant ports in its Macs and iPads for several years.
Cunningham says that the USB-C ports on this year’s iPhone lineup are totally industry-standard and work quite well with existing USB 3 and USB-PD (Power Delivery) compliant cables, chargers, and accessories.
Cunningham also notes that Apple has updated the compatibility information for the official USB-C chargers, cables, and accessories it sells to include all iPhone 15 models. The update includes third-party chargers from sources like Mophie and Belkin.
Apple being Apple, the company is still likely to offer some type of MFi-type licensing program for iPhone-compatible USB-C cables, chargers, and accessories.
So, that’s good news for Apple users who already have USB-C cables and chargers that they’ve been using with their Macs and iPads.