Universal Supply Bus, Type-C

It seems funny to admit I have been fascinated by cables and connectors. But it is much deeper than that. Back in the old days personal computers were plagued by the cable mess. Each box had a dozen or so different cables hanging out with as many as five separate ones (power, VGA, USB, audio in, audio out)  necessary at the same time to connect a monitor. Other accessories, like mice, often required separate communication (RS-232) and power cables. Because each cable had its own purpose. The power cable to deliver power, the vga cable to deliver video (but no audio), the usb cable to deliver data and the audio cables to deliver audio in one direction (hence two were often needed).

Things started to converge with inventions like HDMI (audion and video in one, but no power) and USB, especially when the latter started enabling more than 2.5W (5V at 0.5A) of power. It was 15 years ago when I first called USB the Universal Supply Bus. USB had (what has been HDMI's biggest drawback) a potential to deliver not just data (in both directions) but also low voltage DC power. Suddenly all accessories dropped the need for dedicated power supplies and dedicated power cables.

And guess what - people have really liked it. To the extent it now seems entirely obvious and natural. USB clearly got that message and worked hard to deliver the Type-C (commonly and incorrectly known as USB-C), the connector that has revolutionized and completely unified wired connectivity of all electronic devices.

Considering the recently upgraded Power Delivery over Type-C to allow up to 240W (48V at 5A), I would say 99.9% of appliances are fully covered and the standard is fully ready to be adopted as a low-voltage DC power distribution system in apartments and homes.  Also capable of transferring data at USB4 Gen3x2 (40Gbps) speeds, Thunderbolt compatibility, carrying DisplayPort video, and even analog audio (left, right, microphone, ground), I believe this is the ultimate connector / cable to stay with us for decades. On the small / legacy / low power side of things you can now buy rechargeable AAA batteries with USB-C ports built in.

I would say, for any new designs requiring power and/or wired data transfer, it is insane to consider anything other than Type-C.