Other Will iPhone 16 be USB 3? Probably, since Cook is mediocre.

[ThomasJL]

This year, 2024, Intel will release Thunderbolt 5 (80 Gbps). The current lineup of Macs have Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps) on some models, and Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps) on the other models. The latest 2023 iPhone 15 Pro has USB 3 (10 Gbps), which is the same speed as Thunderbolt 1 (10 Gbps). Apple first released Thunderbolt 1 products (Macs) in 2011.

Tim Cook has no shame in releasing a flagship iPhone in 2023 with data transfer speeds of Apple products from 12 years earlier, in 2011! Not only that, but 2023's non-Pro iPhone 15 has USB 2.0, which was first released on Apple products (Macs and iPods) 20 years earlier, in 2003!

My guess is that for the iPhone 16 Pro, Cook, being the mediocre MBA suit that he is, will not include Thunderbolt 5, nor Thunderbolt 4, nor Thunderbolt 3, nor even Thunderbolt 2. Rather, he will continue to include USB 3, which is the equivalent of Thunderbolt 1 in terms of speed, which is 8 times slower than Thunderbolt 5. Cook will likely do that because he is a beancounter who places the highest priority on maximizing profits, so he will include the least expensive parts wherever he can get away with it.

This is a huge burden and waste of time for those of us who frequently transfer large quantities of data between our Macs (or PCs) and our iPhones.

 

[Shirasaki]

While I have full sympathy on your complains and I share the same level of frustration, the reality is most people in US nowadays don’t even plug their phone to a computer of any kind at all for data transfer need or do backup even. This means they have no rush to introduce better controllers and design the motherboard to support high transfer speed, if they care at all. It’s a disgrace I know, but Apple has become way too big to fail and they can get away with literally anything, short of committing crime.