As much as we’re excited to see USB-C on the iPhone 15 series, there might be a catch to it.
Whether Apple likes it or not, they have no choice but to use USB-C on the next iPhone, presumably the iPhone 15 series. While that may sound like a win for everyone who has been frustrated with Lightning, it appears that Apple might have a few tricks to prevent people from using any kind of USB-C cable on the iPhone 15 series.
While still a rumor for now, Apple plans to add additional ICs to the USB-C port to prevent the iPhone 15 from working with cables that are not certified—specifically not having the Made For iPhone (MFi) designation.
MFi should ring a bell, as Apple has been using this certification on any accessories that make use of Lightning. Without the certification, users will receive a “This accessory is not supported” notification, limiting functionalities like fast charging in the process.
Retaining the MFi certification would mean that Apple will still enjoy royalties even without using Lightning. At the same time, the certification is important to ensure that users don’t plug in any dubious USB-C accessory on the iPhone 15 series.
While it’s possible that Apple will make that crippling move, we still have are hopes high that it might not happen—MacBooks and iPads do use USB-C, but do not have any of those restrictive features that require accessories to be MFi-certified.
What’s more plausible, however, is Apple limiting the USB-C transfer speeds. As stated previously by Min-Chi Kuo, only the iPhone 15 Pro series will get USB 3.2 speeds—the regular iPhone 14 series will reportedly be limited to USB 2.0 speeds, which is similar to Lightning.
