Apple stuck with 30-pin for almost 10 years so Lightning will presumably have a similar lifespan. For the time being, however, you are likely to need a second Lightning to USB cable at some point.

The Apple Lightning to 30-pin Connector Cable will sell for $39. If you don't need the cable, you can pick up a $29 adapter to accomplish the same thing. See all of CNET's Apple coverage.

Anyone who remembers dongle-gate, when Apple switched from the old 30-pin dock cables to Lightning in 2012, might roll their eyes at yet another change.

You see, the tiny 8-pin connector was elbowing aside Apple’s much wider (and widely used) 30-pin connector that predated the introduction of the iPhone. I'm actually excited about these new USB ...

What you're looking at here is the i-FlashDrive, a memory dongle that sports both a USB plug and an Apple 30-pin dock connector, and it comes in three flavors starting from 8GB at $95 up to 32GB ...

See Macworld’s recommended best USB-C charge cables. Don’t bother with the older Lightning cables with USB-A at the other end, as only USB-C (to Lightning or USB-C) supports iPhone fast charging.

The original Apple 30 pin connector runs USB 2.0 through four of the pins, so [David] used the original USB cable and identified the appropriate pins and traces with a continuity tester.

USB-C also offers much faster charging speeds. Wired iPhone charging over a Lightning to USB-C cable (with a 20W or higher power adapter) can generally get the battery to 50% in 30 minutes ...

Even worse, Apple will only supply an older USB 2.0 cable within the iPhone 15’s box, which will limit rates for both charging and data transfer and is in no way faster than the Lightning cable.