The Kickstarter campaign that was "shut down" by Apple for creating a charging station that had both Lightning and 30-pin iPod connectors wasn't following the specifications required to be part of Apple's "Made for iPod" (MFi) program, according to Apple. Still, Apple has reviewed the specifications and has apparently reversed course on those restrictions, telling Ars on Friday that it has decided to allow 30-pin and Lightning connectors side-by-side for charging purposes.
"Our technical specifications provide clear guidelines for developing accessories and they are available to MFi licensees for free. We support accessories that integrate USB and Lightning connectors, but there were technical issues that prevented accessories from integrating 30-pin and Lightning connectors, so our guidelines did not allow this," Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr told Ars on Friday. "We have been working to resolve this and have updated our guidelines to allow accessories to integrate both 30-pin and Lightning connectors to support charging."
The incident highlights some of the problems accessory creators can face when using Kickstarter to fund yet-to-be-created projectsâ€"especially as they relate to Apple accessories. Earlier on Friday when we spoke to James Siminoff, the creator of the POP Kickstarter campaign, he explained that the timing of the iPhone 5 announcement (and its related introduction of the new Lightning connector) is what threw the whole project for a loop.
"We were already a member of the MFi program before the release of the iPhone 5. When we came out with the project, one of the biggest questions we got was whether we'd support the iPhone 5, and we said 'absolutely,'" Siminoff told Ars. "At the time, there was no reason to think that they would change the way in which they're selling [the MFi program]."
That is, Siminoff and his company didn't expect Apple to make changes to the restrictions placed on the MFi specâ€"he says previously, Apple didn't have language that would have prohibited an Apple connector to be sold in a product alongside another connector. But eventually Apple did begin to issue new guidelines that said Lightning connectors couldn't be included alongside any other kind of connectorâ€"30-pin or otherwise. Siminoff says his company interpreted this as not applying to their product.
"They started to come out with guidelines, and there was one that said Lightning would not be allowed in any product that has 30-pin," he said. "We didn't clarify if that was for chargers or a docking stationâ€"we assumed the latterâ€"so while we saw it, it didn't seem to make sense for what we were doing that they would not allow these two things to be on the same device."
Siminoff went on: "Maybe we should've seen that and decided that we can't make [the POP charger]. But it didn't make any rational sense. At the same time, they were changing things, updating the policies, so we said, 'OK we'll submit the project [to the MFi program] and see what happens.'"
What happened was that Apple eventually turned the application down for not following the updated MFi spec. As such, Siminoff made the decision this week to cancel the project altogether rather than modify it to allow users to plug in their own Lightning cables because it simply wouldn't have been the product that he originally wanted to produce.
"We got very strong feedback saying we should still make a product that just has USB," Siminoff told Ars before Apple decided to update its guidelines, "but I still feel good about the decision to just refund everyone's money, because we just wanted to make a product that we believed in."
A product they "believe in" would include clean lines and easy-to-use cables coming from a single charging station, not adapters and ports that users need to plug things into, said Siminoff. That's exactly why Siminoff remains skeptical of Apple's apparent reversal of its decision to bar the combination of 30-pin and Lightning connectors; what about Lightning alongside other connectors?
"If it has to be an Apple-only product, and Lightning can't be next to, say, an Android charger, then it's still not something we want to make, Siminoff said after hearing the news about Apple's updated guidelines. "I hope they become customer friendly. Maybe we will be able to do [the POP charger] after all."
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