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| A comparison of the connector on the Apple iPhone 4S (top) and the Lightning connector on the iPhone 5 |
Sept. 13: The iPhone 5 has plenty of new features to keep Apple fans happy. But there is one feature Apple unveiled yesterday that is likely to annoy many: a new connector on the phone’s base.
The Lightning port, as Apple calls it, is smaller and shaped differently from the old one, instantly rendering obsolete the millions of spare charging cords, docks and iPhone-ready clock radios that its customers have accumulated over the years.
While irritating to some, the Lightning connector could be a boon to the hundreds of companies that sell accessories for iPhones and iPads.
“Apple is testing the patience of its fans,” said Tero Kuittinen, an independent analyst and a vice president of Alekstra, a company that helps customers manage cellphone costs. “A lot of Apple fans have a lot of different accessories and use the old systems, so this is going to be a fairly expensive shift for a lot of them,” Kuittinen said. Makers of iPhone accessories are likely to be ecstatic, he added.
Apple, which is selling Lightning cables and $30 adapters that will connect the new phones to many but not all older accessories, is, of course, poised to profit from the design change as well. Apple said the smaller connector allowed it to make the phone thinner and use space inside the device more efficiently.
Accessories for Apple products are already a vast and lucrative business. In the last year, iPad, iPod and iPhone add-ons, including speakers, cases and power chargers, generated $2 billion in sales in the US alone, according to the NPD Group, a research firm.
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