Apple may remove traditional USB ports from the new MacBook Pros in favor of USB Type-C

[midian182]

Fresh from annoying everyone by dropping the headphone jack from the iPhone 7, Apple is reportedly set to remove more popular inputs from its products. According to Macotakara (the first to predict the 3.5mm jack's demise), the upcoming new MacBook Pro may lose the traditional USB port in favor of USB Type-C.

In addition to dropping the USB 3.0 port, the report claims Apple will also ditch the Magsafe charging connector and Thunderbolt 2, leaving only USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports. There was no mention of the 3.5mm headphone jack, though leaked images of the chassis indicate that it will be included. However, a survey sent out by Apple last month suggests it may be dropped in future revisions of the laptop.

As the majority of peripherals use the traditional USB standard, the move would force users to buy a USB 3.0 adaptor, such as Apple’s $79 USB-C multiport dock.

An Apple event is set to take place before the end of the month, possibly on October 27. The new 15.4- and 13.3-inch MacBook Pros will almost certainly feature an OLED bar that replaces the physical function keys along the top of the keyboard, as well as a Touch ID fingerprint scanner integrated into the power button.

Macotakara predicts that the event will also see Apple unveil a new 13.3-inch MacBook Air, with the 11-inch model set to be discontinued. There have been reports that the new Air will feature USB Type-C ports, meaning Apple may also remove the traditional USB ports from this laptop, too.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/66716-apple-may-remove-traditional-usb-ports-new-macbook.html

 

[EndlessWaves]

This has been standard practice on the Mac range for years. Apple have always swapped over to new ports early on.

 

[Igrecman]

Apple is the number one reason for devices becoming obsolete. Athough I guess technological progress has to keep moving ahead. If it were only up to the consumers, technology would be so stagnant, since most people would prefer that their expensive devices would work for decades.

 

[Kibaruk]

Oh someone wants to fight the "thinnest" laptop championship.

If it were only up to the consumers, technology would be so stagnant, since most people want or expect their expensive devices to work for decades.

I think you are wrong in a part there, people want their things to be just like they have always been, take the windows start menu as an example, Microsoft decided to get rid of the traditional one and all hell broke loose. It's not that they want expensive devices to work forever, when they get a new one they want it to be exactly how the old one was.

 

[Jamlad]

The more and more I heard about Apple's hardware choices the less and less I consider upgrading from a 2011 MBP to a 2016. Soldered RAM, soldered batteries, probably soldered SSDs, no USB-C, discrete ATI GFX, and potentially no 3.5mm jack.

**** me for wanting future upgrade options and to maintain usage of my perfectly fine USB devices.

 

[m4a4]

Of course they will. Then they will sell the adapter for a big profit margin

 

[Uncle Al]

No impact, I just got a couple of "converters" for all of $6 ......

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Apple is the number one reason for devices becoming obsolete. Athough I guess technological progress has to keep moving ahead. If it were only up to the consumers, technology would be so stagnant, since most people would prefer that their expensive devices would work for decades.

How lucky! Apple is right there to sell you a new product that isn't obsolete... it's almost like they've planned it or something.

 

[Kibaruk]

No impact, I just got a couple of "converters" for all of $6 ......

Just be careful on the quality of said adapters, remember the guy that fried a Chromebook by using a bad quality USB C cable.

 

[BSim500]

"As the majority of peripherals use the traditional USB standard, the move would force users to buy a USB 3.0 adaptor, such as Apple’s $79 USB-C multiport dock."

Or better still a proper computer which doesn't involve buying half a dozen extraneous dongles with +800% profit margins dangling off purely to upgrade 2016 laptops to 1996 functionality...

 

[Kibaruk]

I so get you BSim, but we are headed the usb C way so far, newest phones are going to have this standard, and for usb drives and whatnot you can always get a converter for cheap, but I think the biggest point is that people love their thin and lightweight toys and the only way to achieve this is by shaving off those parts.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I so get you BSim, but we are headed the usb C way so far, newest phones are going to have this standard, and for usb drives and whatnot you can always get a converter for cheap, but I think the biggest point is that people love their thin and lightweight toys and the only way to achieve this is by shaving off those parts.

or maybe apple should stop chasing such an anorexic design. Surface tablets manage to have a full size USB port, but apple cant fit it on a laptop because "thinness". Even HP's new super slim laptop has a full size USB port.

Apple getting rid of a common, useful port is a cash grab on adapters. USB-C is nowhere near ubiquitous enough to replace conventional USB yet, and of course apple is going to suck people in on expensive adapters to get back functionality that should have been present in the first place.

Of course, Apple is a master of suckering people out of cash. Especially Mac users. Why anybody still buys them is beyond me.

 

[Kibaruk]

Well USB won't be replaced until it's forced out, there need to be a switch point, it won't be like waking up tomorrow and everything is usb C. Anorexic design, that's a cute one lol but that's the selling point for a lot of people, the non intrusive and lightweight device. Yes you are right, HP made it and Surface made it, that's why Apple now needs to play keep up and bring it's new thing more thin than ever =P

 

[J spot]

Apple is the number one reason for devices becoming obsolete. Athough I guess technological progress has to keep moving ahead. If it were only up to the consumers, technology would be so stagnant, since most people would prefer that their expensive devices would work for decades.

No it's not. And I've heard so many Apple fanboys say that. The number one examples are the floppy drives. Back in the day, according to many Apple fanboys, Apple killed the floppy drive. Not CD-R technology that was the craze back in the late 90s early 2000s, with people being able to write 640mb of data on a disk, versus 1.4mb, or the burning music CD craze. It was Apple.

Now I don't know if you're an Apple fan boy, but here we have the next version of USB that is 100% expected to replace regular USB. All these companies are making devices for it. And somehow now Apple is going to be the reason.

Or a few years ago, mobile graphic power became more advance with another generation of GPUs and CPUs. So now we have Sharp, Samsung, and other screen manufacturers cashing in on that fact to make higher PPI display for the computer industry. But Apple gives it a fancy name, and so to the fanboys everyone else is copying Apple with higher PPI displays. As if it's Apple "inventing" or manufacturing the displays.

If it wasn't for Apple, technology would be stagnant and people would still be using floppy disks in 2011. Forget about USB sticks, they would still be using floppies, because people would prefer to stick with their expensive devices for decades.

Ooooh, one more. People arguing that without Sony video game systems would still be using CD drives for games. That logic of fanboys. If there was never a PS2, Nintendo, Microsoft would just not be able to figure out that bigger games would be able to have more memory if they use DVDs instead of CDs. I only heard a couple of people say that though, but it's extremely low IQ.

 

[seefizzle]

Can it be clarified exactly the article says that the ports that will be left are "USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports". If I'm not mistaken these ports have been merged into one single port. The thunderbolt 3 port IS the USB-C port, or at the very least it shares the same form factor. Every Thunderbolt 3 connection is compatible with any USB-C device but not every USB-C port is a thunderbolt 3 connection. Is what I'm saying accurate or can someone prove to me otherwise?

Personally I'm not up for ditching all standard usb devices just yet and I hate the idea of dongles. You're just introducing another point of failure for the device. One more thing you can forget to put in the laptop bag or whatever. At the same time I would love to see a rapid adoption of the USB-C form factor as it is a superior connection to standard USB. I don't think this one is as bad as removing the headphone jack from the iphone. That one burned chaffed the *** a bit. This one isn't so bad.

Apple's quick adoption of new connections might be considered a strength but in many ways it's a huge draw back. For example in music production they make audio interfaces for recording that go obsolete really fast because Apple abandons those ports. I know a lot of people with firewire interfaces. There are no new macs with firewire ports on them. Now they're going to abandon standard usb... It just guarantees that you not only have to upgrade your computer but you also have to upgrade all of your peripherals every time you turn around.

 

[Musician]

In a couple of years, Apple would probably remove ALL ports and sell you a wireless dongle for connecting all your peripherals. They will claim the title of 'slimmest' while consumers have to lug around more external accessories.

 

[OcelotRex]

Of course they will. Then they will sell the adapter for a big profit margin

If you're already paying the kind of money for a Macbook Air or Pro, which generally lag behind other less expensive Windows laptops for computing power, the extra money for adapters will not be missed. The margins on the accessory are high as well as the margins on the laptop.

 

[OcelotRex]

Apple is the number one reason for devices becoming obsolete. Athough I guess technological progress has to keep moving ahead. If it were only up to the consumers, technology would be so stagnant, since most people would prefer that their expensive devices would work for decades.

Apple products lack the market share to be the "number one reason for devices becoming obsolete." This has been a common misconception since the iMac release in '98, the same year Windows '98 was released with robust, native USB support.

The reason Apple can do these things is they sell a "premium product" with high, publicly known margins. It's almost a source of pride for Apple consumers the amount of money the company has in reserve from individuals willfully overpaying for their products. If the price for the device is fine with them the same high margin accessories and replacement cost for new devices is well worth owning the product.

 

[Igrecman]

Apple products lack the market share to be the "number one reason for devices becoming obsolete."

Humm, well I think their decisions are influencing the competitors sooner or later. Samsung and Microsoft mostly.

 

[tampasis]

And who is supporting usb 3 ports apple only sort of like firewire

 

[seefizzle]

And who is supporting usb 3 ports apple only sort of like firewire

Every single motherboard that was built in the last couple of years has usb 3 ports on it. Are you insinuating that Apple is the only company that supports usb 3? That would be clearly inaccurate as all major motherboard manufacturers have supported usb 3 for a long time. One of my builds 6 years ago had usb 3.

Whatever happened to that firewire by the way? Apple adopted it and dropped it pretty quickly.