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Apple quietly started selling a charging cable for the Apple Watch that uses a USB-C connector.
This could be one of the biggest rumors about Apple's upcoming iPads: that they could be equipped with a USB-C port, instead of Apple's proprietary Lightning charger.
Apple is going to be launched in New York in March, when it has scheduled a launch event.
Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops already sport USB-C connectors. The ports are symmetrical and smaller than the USB-A ports that have been standard on most phones and laptops for the past decades. They also support a lot of other features, like powering an external display.
If Apple wanted to make its iPad Pro more like a laptop, including a USB-C port would be a logical move. It could be used as a keyboard, if Apple wanted to support them.
And with Apple's new USB-C charge for the Apple Watch, people could conceivable charge their smartwatch from their iPad, too, without an adapter. There are no officially licensed third-party Apple Watch Chargers.
There are a fair amount of rumors pointing to a USB-C iPad Pro, yet the move would be a break from tradition for Apple, which prefers to use its proprietary charging on its iOS phones and tablets.
In September, well-connected TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that Apple's new iPad Pro would come with a USB-C connector for input and output.
Earlier this week, Hong Kong said that they expect the upcoming iPad Pro to have USB-C instead of Lightning, according to MacOtakara, a Japanese Apple blog. So it's entirely possible that Apple could equip the new iPads with a new kind of connector, making them more like a laptop.
However, Apple still includes an older USB-iPhone with new iPhones, so the transition to next-generation USB-C is not complete yet.
Business Insider will cover all of Apple's announcements as they happen on October 30.
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