All ‌iPhone 15‌ models expected to transition to USB-C instead of Lightning

Apple is expected to transition all iPhone 15 models to USB-C instead of Lightning next year, a year earlier than required by the recently introduced European Union law, which requires all smartphones sold within the 27 countries of the EU to adopt USB-C charging ports by autumn 2024.

Speaking in an interview earlier this year, Apple’s vice president of worldwide marketing, Greg Joswiak, said the company had “no choice” but to comply with the new law, confirming Apple will move from the Lightning connector to USB-C with future products, although it wasn’t confirmed when the transition would begin.

According to respected industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will transition to USB-C instead of Lightning on all iPhone 15 models next year, although Apple will likely limit fast USB-C transfer speeds to the high-end ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro models and not the regular iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.

Kuo suggests that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max could see significant speed improvements, supporting speeds up to 20Gb/s and Thunderbolt 3 supports data transfer speeds up to 40Gb/s, compared to transfer speeds that limited to 480Mb/s over USB 2.0.