

New iPhone dock connector  (Source:






Source: Tech Crunch

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By Belard on 6/22/2012 9:38:00 AM , Rating: 2
The Apple connector used today and the upcoming one in the near future was designed for easy of use and functionality. They DO more than the 4 pin USB connector! Some out-dated functions are removed, some are added for the newer smaller port.

Now, here is the kicker... remember ease of use? If anyone ever tried to DOCK a micro-USB connector... it SUCKS. Even the connector for my android requires angle-aim-insertion to get it in. A USB dock for external HD... same thing, if you are not aligned perfectly, pull out- shift a bit and try again. Same with my Logitech Pro MX Mouse, its far more difficult to plug it in that the apple design.

It easily takes 2-5x the effort to plug in/dock a Micro-USB connector. The bigger connector is also less likely to be damaged.

Considering that Apple owns the tablet and a big chunk of the cell phone markets, this is a none issue. It *IS* great that all other phones use the standard USB connector. I know that I've gone through 4 different SONY connectors over the course of 10 years... Samsung 2-4 (ex-GF).. ooops, doesn't fit. etc etc.

Another example: Old-style game consoles before they went wireless. They have big-rounded connectors to handle the abuse. They work a lot better than the standard DB9 / DB15 connectors of old style joysticks (Atari / Amiga / PC).

I'm sure Apple is happy to move to a smaller (but not too small) a connector to work for the next 5~10 years. They didn't DO IT "just because". They know its a bit of a headache with the 3rd party products.

But WE ALL go through this all the time. How many AMD and intel sockets are in the market? Anyone notice that SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3 memory do NOT fit each other? Socket 940 doesn't fit with socket 939 or socket AM2 (940 pins) or FM1... and now FM2 has rendered FM1 & AM3+ into dead platforms.

Personally, I would love to see a better USB port standard that what we have now... but already, there are at least 7 different USB plug types... ugh!

