Gadget of the Week: Ten years of USB
Despite USB-C becoming the universal standard for mobile devices over the last decade, older USB-A ports remain prevalent in infrastructure like hotels, cars, and airports. The author argues that the travel and automotive industries have been slow to update their hardware to match modern consumer technology.
Why it matters
The persistence of legacy hardware creates friction for consumers who have transitioned to modern, unified charging standards.
A decade after USB-C became mainstream on smartphones, the cable has won the standards war, but charging points still cling to yesterday’s connector, writes ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK.
It is doubtful whether anyone there would have imagined that the connector would outlive the phone itself. The Note7’s battery problems brought its life to an abrupt end, but USB-C went on to become one of the most enduring technology standards of the past decade.
Within a few years it had spread across Android smartphones, tablets, laptops, headphones, cameras and power banks. Apple held onto its proprietary Lightning connector for another seven years before finally adopting USB-C with the iPhone 15 in 2023. That completed the transition to a single charging standard for almost every mainstream mobile device.
That should have been the complete story.
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