iPhone 5 connector to make accessories obsolete

Apple’s new iPhone will drop the wide dock connector used in its gadgets for the best part of a decade in favour of a smaller one, a change likely to annoy the Apple faithful but which could be an advantage for accessory makers.

The iPhone 5, the latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular phone, expected to go on sale in Oct, and will come with a 19-pin connector port at the bottom instead of the proprietary 30-pin port “to make room for the earphone moving to the bottom”, two sources have revealed.

This means the new phone would not connect with the myriad of accessories, such as speakers and chargers that form part of the ecosystem around iPods, iPads, and iPhones, without an adaptor. That means new business, analysts say.

“It represents an opportunity for accessory vendors,” Pete Cunningham, London-based analyst at technology research firm Canalys said.

“The iPhone connector has been a standard for a long time now and I would expect the same to be true for a new connector, should Apple change it as expected.”

Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Tech blogs have long speculated on the demise of the 30-pin connector which, at 21mm wide, takes up a relatively large amount of space, especially as the latest technologies, such as micro-USB, offer more power in less space.

A smaller connector would give Apple more scope for new designs or a bigger battery, or simply to make smaller products.

Switzerland’s Logitech, one of the biggest makers of Apple speakers, declined to comment.

But some Chinese vendors have already begun offering cases for the new phone, complete with earphone socket on the bottom and a “guarantee” that the dimensions are correct.

For some in the peripherals industry, the change could open doors to new business. “iPod docking speaker sales have been declining for one or two years,” said an employee of a Hong Kong-based company that designs speakers especially for Apple products.

“My previous factory is a lucky one. They shifted the focus to Bluetooth speakers, which proved a wise decision now,” the employee said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“It looks like while iPod speaker sales are going down, Bluetooth speaker sales are going up.”

Apple has already said some users of older models of its Macbook computers will not be able to use the latest operating system to be announced soon, but analysts think it will be kinder to mobile gadget users.