Apple’s new Lightning port has already made many a customer unhappy as the change to the port connection has meant that over 9 years’ worth of accessories and Apple add-on products have been voided all in one fell swoop.
To make things worse it turns out that Apple have also set up an Apple accessory approval process that means that any device that connects to the Lightning port that is not approved by Apple will not work with the new iPhone 5 and iPod devices.
Apple states that the tighter control is to eradicate cheap third party alternatives that don’t live up to Apple’s exacting standards, which we are fine with, but it also means that Apple can help set the pricing and availability of its accessories for the whole accessory market.
Currently there is an issue where no third parties have actually received Apple’s approval process, so the manufacturers are still making the accessories, but they’re not actually able to function with the new iPhone.
With Apple’s previous approval process of apps for the iPhone range being a bane of many a developer it’s easy to see that this Lightning port approval process will slow things down considerably in the accessory market.
Plus with Apple essentially having the final say in accessories, don’t expect to find too many cheaper alternatives to Apple’s higher priced official accessories, at least for the time being.
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