By now, it’s pretty clear that Apple’s next iPhone will introduce a radically redesigned dock connector, shrinking things down and cutting back on pins. If you’ve got a good deal of hardware that interfaces with through the existing 30-pin connector, you’re no doubt groaning about how you’ll have to pick up all new accessories once you upgrade to the iPhone 5. Well, unless you have an adapter, that is. A new rumor suggests that Apple will be the exclusive provider of such hardware, which it might sell for $10 a pop.
That doesn’t sound like all that much money, and given what Apple charges for similar adapters, it’s right in line with the rest. Of course, this is all a matter of scale, and even at just $10 per unit, Apple stands to take in millions considering the size of its user base.
The source behind this info doesn’t close the door completely on the possibility of third-part manufacturers releasing their own adapters sometime in the future, but it sounds like Apple might have a lock on the market for the all-important first few months of the iPhone 5′s life; after all, that when we’d presume a large portion of users who will be needing one (or more) of these adapters will be upgrading.
