Most iPhone owners have had trouble with the charging cable. The braid splits or frays, then charging problems begin.
Many Apple products have these problems, from iPods to MacBooks.
Why Apple Cables Break
The charging cables sold with Apple products have not always been this fragile.
In fact, it was only in 2006 that massive complaints about this problem began. New cables began to fail after several months of use. There are two reasons for this.
The superiority of beauty over common sense
First, at Apple, form beats function. The design team has the final say in product decisions. And the ribbed strain reliefs on previous models were considered ugly by the designers.
The designers wanted to replace these expansion joints with a seamless plastic sleeve to make the charger look smoother.
The Apple engineering team understood that such a cable would have more breakages, but the changes were implemented anyway.
iPods, MacBooks, and finally iPhones have abandoned conventional ribbed expansion joints. User complaints about breakage and abrasion increased immediately in 2007 and continue to this day.
But there was probably a second factor in 2007 that lowered the quality of Apple's chargers.
Sustainability Apple
Part of the fragility is a result of the environmental protection measures, “A Greener Apple,” started by Steve Jobs. As a result of these measures, Apple began to remove harmful or toxic materials from their products. Among this was PVC (PVC).
PVC is a plastic used in power cords to make them stiffer and more durable. When PVC was removed from Apple products, it was removed from the charging cables as well. The production of chargers was transferred to a thin rubberized outer shell, which was easier to bend, and therefore easier to break.
Combining a smoother but less functional expansion joint design with a thinner, softer rubber jacket results in the most fragile charging cable design ever in the tech industry.
And this became a big problem for users, because Apple accessories are more expensive than competitors. So changing the charger became an expensive and inconvenient part of owning an Apple product.
While this issue is still valid, there are indications that Apple is trying to address this issue. They've already released more durable fabric-braided cables for the Home Pod and iMac.
And for the first time Apple released a lightning from the same material. Although, so far, such a wire is only available with the purchase of an iMac. Maybe Apple will start selling it separately, as they did with the gray iMac Pro accessories.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple includes fabric cables in this year's new iPhone, as they are not only more durable but also more environmentally friendly.
In order not to lose my design findings in tons of bookmarks on my computer, I created the Drin Design Telegram channel . All cool and useful materials (tutorials, articles, links to accounts of cool dudes) that I find for myself, I will post there. Help yourself.