September 21, 2012 iPhone 5 Connector Change Will Boost Bluetooth

The iPhone 5 is now released and publicly available. Even though the phone itself has minor technical upgrades from the iPhone 4s there is one change that will have a rippling effect across the industry. After almost 10 years the standard Apple connector that the iPods, iPhones and iPads have used has been changed.

Almost a decade of collecting chargers, docking stations, boom boxes with iPod docks, extra cables for your computers has been tossed out the window. It was inevitable that the connector was going to change and no time is the right time to make a change of this magnitude but still people are in an uproar over the reinvestment costs. Apple will have a converter to work with your old style cables to the new Apple Lightning connector but that is an additional costs the people that waited for the iPhone 5 did not expect.

On the positive side, as long as Apple stays true to their design patterns, the Lightning connector will be around for another 10 years. Unlike other portable device manufacturers that would make one with micro-USB, the other with a mini-USB and a third with some proprietary connector, Apple stays true to one constant across their devices.

However, Apple's change may reinvigorate a stagnant technology that most people don't use regularly. Bluetooth. The change of this connector could give wireless connectivity a big boost in the arm. Marketers should be jumping on this opportunity to go after the physical connection ways of old and push for a complete wireless world. Then no matter what type of phone with whatever connectors they have won't matter you use Bluetooth to connect to your alarms and speakers. If done correctly your connector is primarily your charging port and not used for data. When Apple allowed the iOS to be updated over Wi-Fi and sync with iTunes over Wi-Fi that broke the first chain of needing a device in addition to your phone.

Already there are a slew of Bluetooth music speakers out there, the leader right now is the Jambox line, that should be salivating at this opportunity to take advantage of the emotional instability around the connector changes. It really doesn't matter what the connector is.

IT is a strange world to be in both as a customers and producer. If you look at the products centered on IT, the cost to value is really horrible. Don't believe me? Are you still using your Walkman and Discman from the 90s that you spent $150 for? Look at your parents and grandparents and see who many things they still use decades later. The world of technology has turned us into a throw away society and we are not getting tangible returns on investments we make in home consumer IT. As soon as you buy a product it's almost worthless as in 6 months the next upgrade will come out.

In Apple's defense this shows you how really, really good they are and why they have climbed out of the ashes to be #1 in the world... ever. They know what we want and focus on design. They have spoiled us for so long we can't get mad at them when they make a change. They had to, the data transfer ability of the old style connector was maxed. It's probably not too far off the mark that the Lightning connector was not for the iPhone but for something else coming in the next few years. You have to start somewhere, right?

The industry will adjust, people will still buy the iPhone and Apple will still make us all happy and warm in side.

End of Line.

Posted in: Apple Inc,Technology