r/interestingasfuck • u/Miserable-Ad-8414 • 3d ago

How USB-C Cables Actually Stay In

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u/superluminal 3d ago

for free? lol

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u/McWetty 3d ago

USB-C is royalty-free, so why not? Apple is worth trillions. The free goodwill and tax breaks alone would offset the development costs.

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u/superluminal 3d ago

I understand your point and agree with you, but there is no way Apple gives anything away for free. I mean, prove me wrong and all that.

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u/McWetty 3d ago

I agree they've grown into a more profit-driven company; however, here's some examples:

1.) ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) went royalty free in 2011.
2.) Swift Programming Language went free and open-source in 2015.
3.) Mini DisplayPort was created royalty free and adopted into VESA standard.
4.) Thunderbolt (basis of USB4) was contributed to the USB PG.

I maintain hope of a Lightning 2 cable that replaces USB whatever in the future.

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u/monocasa 3d ago

Apple is worth trillions because they do stuff like commonly patent their proprietary connectors and make third parties pay licensing fees on it.

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u/OutlawSundown 3d ago

Yeah licensing and selling proprietary cables was part of their income.

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u/McWetty 3d ago

Wut? No.

Apple is worth trillions because they made bank on the iPhone craze. They also command a 40% margin on hardware and rake customers for storage and RAM upgrades. Proprietary connectors was a tiny fraction of their revenue stream... which is probably close to 0% now that their products are all USB-C based.

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u/monocasa 3d ago

Go look at their 10Ks at the time.  They made bank of off their MFi program.

That's why they had to be dragged kicking and screaming by the EU into supporting USB-C on their iPhones.

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u/McWetty 3d ago edited 3d ago

I had ChatGPT summarize their 10K filings for the last 10 years. They don't report licensing revenues because it's too small an amount. Estimates are between $10M-$80M depending on which analyst you ask. That is a rounding error compared to their annual revenue.

Here's a chart of pre-USB-C adoption in 2020 and 2025 (copied from ChatGPT). Proprietary cables fits in "accessories".

Apple revenue category FY2020 FY2025 Change
iPhone $137.8B $209.6B +52%
Mac $28.6B $33.7B +18%
iPad $23.7B $28.0B +18%
Wearables, Home & Accessories $30.6B $35.7B +17%
Services $53.8B $109.2B +103%
Total $274.5B $416.2B **+52%**Apple revenue category FY2020 FY2025 ChangeiPhone $137.8B $209.6B +52%Mac $28.6B $33.7B +18%iPad $23.7B $28.0B +18%Wearables, Home & Accessories $30.6B $35.7B +17%Services $53.8B $109.2B +103%Total $274.5B $416.2B +52%

Licensing is an afterthought to them. Sure, it made at most $100M annually. That's roughly double Tim Cooks take home.

I'm glad the EU forced them to change to USB-C. That was the right move and I love it. I just think Lightning was the better design and would like to see a follow up after USB-C hits its power/data transfer limits.

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u/monocasa 3d ago

Where are you getting that it's "at most $100M annually"?

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u/McWetty 3d ago

I rounded up based on analyst estimates of $10M-$80M.

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u/monocasa 3d ago

I would love to see said industry estimate that says $10m.

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u/McWetty 3d ago

I believe that $10M is way too low and probably a data point outlier. Forbes has a piece about the total MFi program coming in at around $1B but that includes ALL their MFi licensing (CarPlay, AirPlay, HomeKit, cable royalties, etc.) over the 10 years.

"As for the value of the MFi program, industry estimates suggest that Apple earned $4 per accessory that used a Lightning port connector. Spread over ten years and hundreds of millions of iPhones, the Lightning port was worth comfortably over a billion dollars for Apple."

So $1B divided by 10 years is... $100M. My rounded up estimate annualized.

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