Bye bye Lightning Port?

Mmm......I think that it would be premature for Apple to replace the lightning port. In the foreseeable future? Sure. Companies, including Apple, file patents but very few are actually made into consumer products.

 

Yep, patents are filed only to secure the exclusive rights to use it in the future. Besides, only Apple would be expected to file a patent on the removal of a technology that it invented.

 

The patent did NOT mention anything about removing the Lightning port. It's about adding provisions to enable light communications (very likely, IR). The patent describes using multiple opening or orifices for light communications to get in and out.

Well, since everyone is over-analyzing this, certain old Nokias and about a handful of relatively modern smartphones have IR transceivers built in. But it has always been behind a translucent optical/plastic filter. Apparently it seems, doing that is probably too tacky for Apple, so their approach is to do away with the filter and have the emitters and sensors directly behind multiple pinholes on the device's body.

For that matter, we're not even sure if this technology will be used on future iPhones.

 

^ Yes, my O2 XDA II had an IR port before, back when a smartphone was called a "PDA"