Want to dock your new iPhone 5 into your existing iPod speaker system? That'll cost you £25. Per device.
Apple's decision to scrap the 30-pin dock connector in favour of a significantly smaller "Lightning" alternative is a controversial one. On the one hand, it arguably helped the company shrink the size of its new phones. But on the other, it renders all existing iPhone-docking accessories redundant.
To bridge the gap, Apple has released a 30-pin-to-Lightning dock adapter -- but it's charging £25 for it. If you have a speaker system in the bedroom, kitchen and living room, that could cost you £75 to bring them all up to date. Despite
previous confusion, a free adapter does not come in the iPhone 5's box. For users of multiple accessories that's going to be a hard pill to swallow.
Perhaps more concerning still, companies producing speaker docks for the new iPhone potentially alienate all customers using older
Apple models -- the adapter Apple is producing only connects older products to new iPhones; there's no adapter to connect new speaker systems, for example, to older iPhones or iPods. It potentially puts accessory makers in a position that means that by selling their new speakers, they're exclusively helping to sell the new iPhone.
I have to question whether it was a design tweak that justifies the potentially huge financial and logistical inconveniences it creates?
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On the business side of the debate, accessory makers seem unphased by the change. The 400 million iOS-based devices Apple has so far sold is still a very attractive market for accessory makers.
One such company is Logic3. Speaking to Wired.co.uk, Michael Kirkham, the company's technical director, explained: "Logic3 currently has a wide range of devices about to launch with the current 30-pin connections and we are confident in their success, as there are presently millions of devices in the market with this setup. "We will be looking to integrate the 'Lightning' connections into products at a later date, but we have yet to decide how this will be implemented."
Other manufacturers, such as Logitech, suggested to Wired.co.uk that the future of "docking" does not involve a dock at all. "You can still find Logitech speaker dock products in retail that work with older Apple devices, but we're getting ready for a wireless Christmas," the company told Wired.co.uk.
Manufacturers, then, are confident the existing market of iOS devices more than warrants a continued investment. For new models, wireless functionality via Apple's AirPlay standard is an attractive alternative.
The 30-pin connector has featured on Apple devices for almost a decade, and predates even the first iPhone by several years. It's a dated, legacy connector that Tim Cook and co felt was due an upgrade. New iPhones and iPods will ship with the redesigned, smaller connector.
Personally, I actually agree with this, even if it renders my own cables and devices at home temporarily incompatible. That large dock has been there for too long. The same year it was released was the same year Nokia launched the N-Gage and Microsoft started the Windows Mobile brand. Nintendo was still selling the GameCube and Steve jobs introduced the world to OS X 10.3 Panther. How many people expect software bought on any of these to be supported today?
It was the right time to ditch it. But I believe the enormous markup on the £25 adapter is unreasonable. Perhaps it's deliberately priced to encourage people to buy products that natively support the smaller dock connector rather than keep the old one around. Either way it's anti-consumer, and as much as I can get on board with the 30-pin dock being discontinued I can't defend a £25 price tag for a tiny bit of plastic, regardless of how complicated its internal electronics are.
Apple didn't respond to a request for comment on the price of the adapter or the technology inside it when I asked.
Update: A commenter noted that when adding an iPhone 5 to a shopping basket online, Apple currently offers one free adapter. This has now been removed from Apple's store.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
