The iPhone 15 made the switch to USB-C this year, but the Lightning port lives on with several Mac accessories. The latest rumor is that these accessories will be updated with USB-C ports in the first half of next year.
This is according to Directly digital on the Chinese social media site Weibo (via 9to5Mac), and is called “spring 2024”. We assume this means spring in the Northern Hemisphere, so March, April or May.
The tipster mentions the Apple Magic Mouse, the Magic Keyboard and the Magic Trackpad, although we don't get much information beyond that – it's possible that the move to USB-C will be the only real change with the refresh.
Once that happens, there won't be many Apple products with the Lightning port anymore. The company still says older iPhones, of course, and as our iPhone SE 3 review will tell you, that phone also has a Lightning port on the bottom.
A special event?
Another rumor earlier this week suggested that new iPad Air, iPad Pro and MacBook Air models – all powered by Apple's own M3 chip – could also hit the market in March, April or May, so it looks like considerable development could take place. lots of new hardware to see.
Apple has launched products in March in the past, but not this year. This year we had the Apple M2 chips and some associated Mac computer refreshes announced in January, and then nothing until WWDC 2023 in June.
What remains to be seen is whether we'll get a full event streamed live over the internet (as we did in March 2022, when products including the Mac Studio were announced) or whether Apple will content itself with a barrage of press releases. instead of.
It makes sense for Apple to slowly phase out the use of Lightning, although we'll never know if the iPhones would have stayed at the gate if it weren't for European Union regulations. It looks like Apple's flagship accessories are next in line.