Apple Plans to Shrink the Dock Connector in iPhone 5

TechCrunch says it has confirmed that the iPhone 5 will move away from the 30-pin dock connector that AppleiDevices have sported since the third generation iPod. Rumors about a new dock connector have been flying for some time, starting earlier this year, and continuing to accelerate in frequency as the year has progressed.

The dock connector was seen earlier in this video that also purported to show an elongated iPhone 5 screen, along the lines of a different rumor that said the iPhone 5 would have a 4-inch (or around 4-inch) diagonal screen, but with different 16:9 aspect ratio.

TC said that its sources have confirmed that the new connector will have 19-pins. While similar in size to the Thunderbolt port seen on many MacBook devices, three independent manufacturers have confirmed that the pin-out will be different.

There had also been rumors that Apple might go to a standard microUSB port, which is widely used by many other manufacturers and has been adopted by some countries as the only connector they want devices to carry, but that appears to be a false hope, as well.

Instead, it appears that Apple will move to yet another new connector type, one which guarantees that manufacturers will have to change their designs and that inexpensive cables will be hard to find for some time. It also means that those who have items such as Bose stereo docks won’t be able to plug in an iPhone 5, not even with the rumored adapter that some have said Apple will ship with the device.