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Apple’s Lightning Connector: Stay Away From Bootleg AV

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By Lee Distad

I’m going to stray away from the usual editorial topic of AV business management and installation best practices and discuss a volatile topic in the wireless channel: the iPhone 5’s new connector cable, dubbed Lightning.

Since the Sept. 12th announcement of the iPhone 5, the amount of typeface dedicated to Apple’s decision to change their legacy iPod/iPhone/iPad connector to a new design has been considerable, with much speculation on the reason why. Now that there has been enough time to open up and start reverse engineering Lightning, guesses to Apple’s motivations can be made more clearly. It’s worth posting this for AV pros to read because Apple’s work on Lightning is a clear portent for the future of device connections.

Here’s the abstract in case you need to come back and read the whole thing later: BE VERY WARY OF BOOTLEG CABLES.

As of the present time, here’s a complete summary of everything that is known or speculated about Lightning. The new plug is extraordinarily complex, and includes three separate IC chips. All three of these have their own recognition codes. By using multiple IC chips, Apple has created a system where an iPhone 5 can only be used with an authorized charger.  Unauthorized chargers will not have the correct codes to allow the handset to recognize it.

Here’s the best part: The most complex of the three IC chips appears to have the capability of Over-the-Air (OTA) programming. That means that Apple can reprogram Lightning’s codes.

Taking this further, it’s now possible that each time that Apple updates the software in the handset, it can reprogram the codes needed for a proper hand shake between phone and charger. If the charger is not MFi (Made For iPhone, an authorized Apple-approved cable), the update will not pass from the handset to the charger. This will make the charger a useless piece of wire.

At the moment, there is a complete lack of MFi third-party, aftermarket Lightning cables and chargers. To say that Apple is very tightly controlling the entire ecosystem around Lightning would be a great understatement. And they’re doing everything they can to make it hard for everyone else. For one thing: Apple’s manufacturing process includes dipping the IC chips in hard resin to make as hard as possible to crack open and re-engineer.

Apple has managed to lock up the ecosystem surrounding their connector in ways that the HDMI Licensing Corp never even dreamed could be possible. As of last week, overseas engineers have broken the three known static codes, but no one (at least for now) has been able to replicate anything that can deal with the OTC programming codes. Presently, Apple has not given MFi approval to anybody, nor are they presently accepting applications, but once a product has been submitted for MFI approval, the manufacturer will have to buy the connectors from Apple for inclusion in their production.

Like anything in this business, the situation is fluid. It’s expected that after Apple’s iDevice MFi 2012 summit (Nov. 7-9, 2012 in Shenzchen, China) there will be greater clarity regarding Lightning and its parameters, and we’ll begin to see manufacturer’s be approved to manufacture third-party Lightning cables.

In the meantime, the bootleggers have been hard at work. In the past week my inbox has been deluged with spam from offshore factories promising me functional (albeit counterfeit) Lightning cables at incredible prices. In fact, over the course of three emails in a 24-hour period the price per lots of 2,000 cables got progressively cheaper, which is an indicator that no one’s raising to the bait.

Of course, the risk of selling bootleg Lightning cables to your customers is that one day they won’t work. The net result won’t just be a bad customer experience, it will be loss of goodwill toward your business.

If Lightning is a sign of things to come in connectors not only for wireless, but for AV in general, then everyone needs to pay attention and not get caught unaware.

Lee Distad is a rAVe columnist and freelance writer covering topics from CE to global business and finance in both print and online. Reach him at lee@ravepubs.com

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