this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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There are USB-C peripherals though. I just did a quick check for "USB-C " (tried mouse, keyboard, and drive) and found plenty of options. The USB-A devices are frequently cheaper, probably because USB-A compliance is a lot easier than USB-C compliance, which translates to cheaper products.
If the market doesn't jump to support USB-C, it's probably because it's either too expensive or customers don't care. If neither is the case, the companies that make USB-C devices would make a killing and everyone else would rush to catch up.
I personally slightly prefer USB-C, but I don't need everything to be USB-C. USB-A still works fine, and they work especially well w/ my older devices. What benefits do I get by switching to USB-C? Having everything the same is nice, but how much is that actually worth when it comes to extra costs?
I guess that is where our opinions differ. I find USB A doesn't work fine, and is a pain in the ass that I only use because I have to.
If you actually look at those results when searching USB C you will see that they are nearly all either cheap no name products or come with a dongle (the thing I want to avoid). But back to the customers will change naturally thing, that wont happen until they have the choice. I could see your argument making sense if all manufacturers decided to make every product in both styles for 5 years to see what everone wants to use, but that isn't going to happen. People will choose devices for what they have, and what they have is nearly 0 USB C ports on everything.
IF 50% of mainstream brand peripherals and IF motherboard manufacturers actually had more than a single USB C port (if any) surrounded by half a dozen USB A ports, people might actually have a choice. Right now its buy USB A or go to dongle hell, which I very much dislike.
And I honestly don't think USB-A is that bad, especially on a laptop where I can look at the cable and put the solid part on the bottom. It's really annoying on desktops with vertical ports on the back that I can't see while plugging in a cable.
USB-C costs more and is totally overkill for most peripherals where speed really isn't a concern. I really don't care if my keyboard is USB-A or USB-C, I plug it in once and I'm done (on my laptop, it's to a USB-C hub). Likewise for a mouse. I do care for external SSDs, so mine is USB-C. I don't care for charging my headphones or other small wearables, I just leave the charging cable in the hub/desktop. I do care about my monitor, and that's either USB-C (work) or DisplayPort (home desktop).
Both ports are fine. USB-A is a lot cheaper, so I'd rather pay less than force everything to be USB-C for reasons.