2020: The Year of Type-C

I've been a great fan of the USB standard since the very beginning. Most of the readers have probably never experienced the era before - ruled by DB-9, DB-25 and Centronics connectors. Big, bulky plugs and sockets plus separate power cables. USB through the universal data transfer and integrated power supply has solved most of mouse / keyboard / printer connection issues. That was of course hugely helped by great support for USB in Windows (promotion of USB actually started with the famous BSOD with Bill Gates on stage).

The next frontier is to eliminate all other connectors (except probably for the Ethernet's RJ-45). And Type-C is great in making that happen.

• It is small. Fits in every device type.
• It is reversible. So you can plug it either way and it works.
• It provides up to 100W of power (that one I just was not sure about from the reliability standpoint - I was expecting cables overheating and wearing out, but nothing like that happened over almost two years of using my 15" Macbook).
• It carries USB-2, USB-3, USB3.1 signals.
• It carries Thunderbolt.
• It supports long cables with high speed optical cores.
• It carries alternate display signals making HDMI and DisplayPort things of the past.

It seems like a no brainier.

But some people still don't get it. Examples?

Apple is probably #1. They forced Type-C (with great support) on all laptops and on the Pro iPads. While iPhones still stick to the Lightning port. This does not make sense. And is probably the only thing preventing me from buying one. The freedom of having just one power brick and just one cable is such that I don't want to go back and start carrying yet another cable/connector.

And other vendors also make utterly stupid decisions. The brand new Nikon Z50 (December 2019!) has a micro-USB socket, while it's bigger brothers - Z6 and Z7 use Type-C. I just can't imagine who came with this idea to use old connector is a brand new camera and who approved it....?!?

On my personal accessories front, I would love Garmin to finally offer a Type-C sync/charge cable for fēnix watches (including the D2 Delta).

And last but not least, while we have computer monitors with Type-C connectors (providing signal input and power delivery output), we are yet to see Type-C replacing HDMI in TV sets and projectors.

In any case, Type-C is the future and will stay with us for very long time. This has (almost) become #1 criteria for my buying decisions.