Several accessory Companies are set to be hit if Apple goes ahead and drops their lightning port for a ‘wireless experience’ Apple are also set to force iPhone owners to buy a Apple endorsed wireless charger.
Currently Companies such as Belkin, Cygnett as well as Mophie and Scosche are marketing Apple lightening products while also having to pay excessive fees to Apple for a licence on every product sold. Now these Companies are going to have to tool up to produce Apple approved Wireless Chargers.
Last week Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF Securities claimed that Apple will launch an iPhone in 2021 that doesn’t include a Lightning connector.
He said that Apple would only remove the Lightning port from the highest-end iPhone, creating a “completely wireless experience,” Kuo wrote in a note to clients late last week.
An industry source said “If Apple is set to remove or stop using lightening ports this will hurt several accessory Companies who manufacture or sell lightening connection products. What’s odd is that the use of Apple lightening products has generated millions for Apple in licence fees” they said.
“Apple will create more differentiation between the highest-end and high- end models,” Kuo’s research note for TF International Securities states.
“It will benefit the shipment of the highest-end model and iPhone ASP.
Among new 2H21 iPhone models, we expect that the highest-end model would cancel the [Lightning] port and provide the completely wireless experience.” he added.
Some observers are questioning whether Apple should be allowed to do this? Others claim that Apple could in fact raise additional revenues with the new Apple devices only compatible with official Apple wireless charging units, which like every Apple product, will probably be more expensive than the market average.
Without a Lightning port, customers will be forced to purchase additional wireless charging units for (potentially) several different locations claims analysts.
This could become very expensive for the customer, unless they are willing to play battery chicken claims Telecoms.com.
Most consumer watchdogs get twitchy when companies effectively force consumers into spending more money, though the reaction might well depend on the development of the wireless charging market.
The ‘wireless experience’ which Kuo describes is looking like it could be a reality sooner rather than later said an IDC analyst.
Observers claim that the move by Apple to wireless chargers would almost certainly trigger an industry wide-shift and a new type of digital environment for the consumer.
