iPhone 15 Models (and USB-C Charging Ports) Are Here: What to Know for Smartphone Accessory Distributors

Apple officially announced the new line of iPhones yesterday, with the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

In addition to a few new software tweaks, the biggest news comes at the bottom of the iPhone. Something we've been speculating on for years has finally come to fruition after a period of arm-twisting:

The iPhone finally has a USB-C charging port.

A USB-C port is visible on the brand new Apple iPhone 15 during an Apple event on September 12, 2023 in Cupertino, California. Apple revealed its lineup of the latest iPhone 15 versions as well as other product upgrades during the event. | Credit: Getty Images by Justin Sullivan

Apple clung to its proprietary Lightning jack for a long time. It was a thorn in the side of charging cable manufacturers and distributors, as just about every other smartphone manufacturer pivoted to the now-almost-universal USB-C technology. What made it more frustrating was that Apple partially adopted it by making them the default ports on laptops.

So, going forward, distributors who sell smartphone accessories will have an easier job appealing to iPhone users, and the days of charging cable products with multiple different ports like some sort of smartphone Hydra might be behind us.

The other thing about a new iPhone line is that, while Apple hasn't made any huge design changes over the last few models, they have always tweaked things just enough to make old cases obsolete.

Credit: Getty Images by Justin Sullivan

Like before, the size differences are just about invisible to the naked eye, but if you were to try to put an iPhone 14 case on an iPhone 15, you'd probably be out of luck.

For example, the iPhone 15 now has a height of 5.81", compared to the iPhone 14's 5.78".

The iPhone 14 Plus and iPhone 15 plus both have the same height of 6.33", but the iPhone 15 Plus is ever so slightly less wide, with 3.06" compared to the iPhone 14 Plus at 3.07". Infuriating, really.

The biggest difference iPhone users might notice is on the iPhone 15 Pro, which no longer has the familiar toggle next to the volume buttons to switch between silent and loud. Now, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max have what's called an "action button," which users can customize to perform different tasks.

So, while an iPhone release no longer has that "What will it look like?" factor as it once did, when the design drastically changed between models, distributors and suppliers who include smartphone accessories in their sales will need to pay close attention to specs.

Because while each model isn't a reinvention of the iPhone, it all comes down to the small details.