USB, Thunderbolt, Lightning, MagSafe -- convergence?

[LeVostreGC]

Hi all,

I've been thinking about this for a while, and with the latest, reversible USB Type-C plug announced, it might be a good time to seek other people's opinions.

Could we see a convergence of some of the many port types over the coming years? Lightning, Thunderbolt, and the latest USB plug are all newer, smaller, and/or faster than what they replace. However, they are still one-for-one replacements of older standards, rather than attempts to reduce the number of existing standards.

As devices become more efficient, big cables might become less necessary for drawing power. Could we see MagSafe giving way to Lightning some day? Or a smaller MagSafe superseding Lightning? Or perhaps a Lightning connector attached to a Thunderbolt cable? This is about the tech industry in general, really, but sometimes where Apple goes others follow.

Thoughts welcome.

 

[v-600]

Interesting thought.

On the convergence point, I can see an actual universal USB port being useful (I would love to do away with the old B end cables that nowadays only seem to fit printers). One standard interface, connector and cable would be great.

Like the original USB, until they realised there were extra niches that a more specific cable might be better for and redesigned the connectors.

I think apple will always go their own way (thunderbolt, firewire, lightning) but will still have to keep USB on their devices either directly or with a cable/converter. E.g. The only way to wire a lightning device to another computer is with a lightning to USB converter cable.

What I would love to see is some sort of standardised magnetic resonance charging (I'd settle for 80% efficient at 2m, especially as devices draw less and less power). I'd love to see some sort of standardised short range high speed wireless data connection (Low power 60GHz style WiGig replacing USB/Thunderbold/Lightning/HDMI/DisplayPort).

I think ethernet will be with us for a long time.

 

[Eug]

There are already Thunderbolt boxes out there that support the following in various mixes: USB 3, HDMI, eSATA, Firewire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, audio input and output, and of course, Thunderbolt.

However, these things are expensive, and add several layers of complexity.

 

[Rakehellion]

Could we see MagSafe giving way to Lightning some day? Or a smaller MagSafe superseding Lightning? Or perhaps a Lightning connector attached to a Thunderbolt cable? This is about the tech industry in general, really, but sometimes where Apple goes others follow.

Thoughts welcome.

Thunderbolt cable is fat, Lightning is thin. Any high-bandwidth cable is going to be fat, so those probably won't converge.

MagSafe is designed to break away so your laptop doesn't go flying across the room when you trip over the cable. The other connectors are designed to fit securely. Pulling a laptop's power cable won't interrupt your work, but pulling a Thunderbolt cable during a backup could be disastrous.