Dive summary:
- Apple is switching from the 30-pin connector that they have been shipping since 2003, to a rumored 19 or 9 pin dock. Apple has sold 610 million of the 30-pin version, but that doesn't include the hotel rooms, cars, and a myriad of supporting products that utilize the old version.
- Apple is creating an e-waste problem on two levels: People will need to throw out all those old connectors, and the value of the old devices (iPods, etc) will decrease, meaning they are less likely to be re-sold and more likely to simply be tossed in the trash.
- Due to Apple's popularity and the number of companies supporting its products, a simple change of a connector dock is posing an e-waste problem unlike many others before it.
Featured article:
What happens when you change one port? Quite a lot, actually. Apple introduced the 30-pin iPod port on April 28, 2003. That makes the technology – a fairly streamlined solution for 2003 – nine years old and, thanks to the iPhone’s popularity, essentially ubiquitous. Now, however, as news leaks about either a 19- or 9-pin overhaul of the technology, there’s something important to consider: the install base of 30-pin devices is wild and deep and a simple change could create an e-waste problem if not properly handled.
To be clear: this new pin layout is coming and it’s coming soon. Whether it arrives in this generation or the next still remains to be seen, the sources I reached out to agreed that the switch was imminent.
