Apple has always envisioned a future of a port-less iPhone, it all started with removing the 3.5 mm jack headphone jack pin and now with their Magsafe charging standard, we should soon say goodbye to the lightning charging port.
In essence, Apple has just revived one of its more beloved technologies, MagSafe when they showed off their new line of smartphones with magnets built into the back for fast and sturdy connections to wireless chargers, snap-on cases, and other accessories.
With MagSafe, Apple could present an alternative way to charge your phone entirely through wireless charging and whatever cables and adapters it may come up with to solve your on-the-go charging needs.
But while MagSafe now seems like a nice complementary feature to the newly announced iPhones, it paves the way for Apple to make magnetic wireless charging the centerpiece for how we charge all of our devices going forward. Just look at the company’s new MagSafe Duo Charger, a wireless charging stand for both the Apple Watch and iPhone, or Belkin’s even more robust (and also outlandish-looking) MagSafe 3-in-1 charger that lets you charge an Apple Watch, AirPods, and an iPhone all at once. Both seem to nudge us closer to a world in which the iPhone doesn’t need to support Lightning charging or any kind of wired charging whatsoever.
But with MagSafe, Apple is literally taking the friction out of accessorizing your iPhone. Magnets make it a snap.
With Magsafe, you can see how much easier it’d be to swap cases every day, or perhaps before you go out for the evening (once society starts doing that kind of thing again). Today’s cases effectively have claws that grasp the edges of your phone — but with magnets, there’d be less need to painstakingly pry those away from your phone’s corners, or press down hard on your pricey camera module just to get enough leverage to pop it off.
Plus, the sheer variety and utility of accessorizing you can now do thanks to built-in magnets on the back of the iPhone is exciting. The snap-on wallet and red leather charging case Apple is making are just a couple of the countless potential accessories we can imagine. Think of magnetic snap-on zoom lenses or bundles of cases that can attach magnetically and don’t need to be forcefully ripped off your phone if you want to swap one for another. PopSocket, the leading maker of removable grips for iPhones, is surely fast at work on MagSafe-ready versions of its products.
