It’s now almost certain that the iPhone 15 series of phones are going to come with USB-C ports attached rather than the traditional Lightning option, but a new rumor suggests that certain iPhone 14 models could get retrofitted with USB-C as well.
This comes from Apple developer @aaronp613 (via Notebookcheck), who was digging around in the code for tvOS 17 beta 5 and found references to two iPhone models that don’t currently exist. Four more were then discovered in older beta updates.
It’s assumed that the set of four refer to the iPhone 15, the iPhone 15 Plus, the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. That leaves a couple of models unaccounted for, models that won’t be part of the new iPhone 15 lineup.
Now everything after that is pure speculation, but it seems plausible that a couple of iPhone 14 models will be sticking around, and that Apple will want to switch them over to USB-C for the sake of consistency – and to stay in line with EU regulations.
tvOS 17.0 Beta 5 references two iPhone models that currently don’t exist:iPhone14,1iPhone14,9August 9, 2023
A tale of two iPhones
Right now you can still pick up the iPhone 13, the iPhone 13 mini, and the iPhone 12 from the official Apple website, so it seems likely that the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Plus might be the phones that stick around after September.
Based on the naming of these unreleased models, it appears they will be running the Apple A15 Bionic chip inside the cheaper pair of iPhone 14 models, rather than the A16 Bionic chip that powers the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
There’s more than one theory though. The developer who spotted the mentions in the code thinks that the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 mini (which also use the A15 Bionic chip) will be the ones to get upgraded to USB-C.
For now, we’re all just guessing, but it looks as though we might get some extra surprises when Apple unveils its next set of iPhones. The event should be taking place in September, and September 12 or September 13 are looking like good bets.
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