iPhone 12 MagSafe is the sleep feature that could outshine 5G

From Apple MagSafe, that allows you magnetically snap into accessories, it may be the newest feature in the iPhone 12 family that gives you the most immediate impact. And that’s knowing that the company, and the entire wireless industry, has spent a great deal of time highlighting 5G.

It is almost sacrilege for me to write this. After all, I’ve been covering the potentially game-changing nature of 5G since 2015, when I first wrote about Verizon’s intention to field test super-fast cellular technology. But the truth is, initial deployments don’t represent big increases in speed, and your first experience with 5G can lead to a shrug.

MagSafe, on the other hand, offers some tangible benefits no matter where you live or near the correct cell tower. A MagSafe connection charges faster than previous iPhones, equating it with the fast charging Android phones have long enjoyed. And, as silly as it sounds, there’s something cool about seeing your phone snap into place, a visual confirmation that you didn’t tamper with your device’s location.

“You no longer have to guess where the sweet spot is,” said Ramon Llamas, an analyst at IDC.

MagSafe has its own long-term potential that is exciting. The magnetic pins on the back of the phone date back to other attempts to power an ecosystem of accessories, from Motorola’s Moto Mods to the Essential Phone PH-1’s modular camera. None of those companies moved enough phones (the Essential, in particular, was a total failure) to really interest many accessory makers to take risks with bold ideas. Most of the time, we have extra battery packs.

Apple’s scale changes everything.

Paving the way

Apple’s huge reach – Strategy Analytics estimates it will sell 180 million units next year – means a potentially huge market for anyone looking to build MagSafe accessories. The opportunity is particularly rich for anyone looking for accessories beyond the basic wireless charging stand. Think of game controllers, camera grips, selfie sticks, and yes, wireless charging batteries that could change the way we hold or interact with an iPhone.

“We can’t wait to see the innovative way others will use MagSafe, creating a robust and ever-expanding ecosystem,” Deniz Teoman, Apple’s vice president of hardware systems engineering, said at Apple’s presentation Tuesday.

That is not hyperbole. Apple has a way of popularizing and legitimizing technology trends, from mobile payments to wireless charging. Where Motorola and Essential fell short, Apple was able to popularize the notion of magnetic accessories.

Apple itself filed a patent for a folio case with additional power supply and the ability to charge AirPods, according to Patently Apple. While those patents don’t always produce products in the real world, they are an indication of where the company can go in the future.

Phone accessory maker Belkin, meanwhile, has already introduced two MagSafe accessories, a charging stand that can handle a iPhone 12, Apple Watch, and Apple Airpods, along with a more conventional car mount. Steve Malony, senior vice president at Belkin, said the initial products were more “bread and butter” compared to future accessories on the roadmap.

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“Some of the ideas we see on our desk are pretty crazy,” he joked. “It’s going to be fun to take those ideas and put them into practice.”

Modular dreams

MagSafe feels like a spiritual successor to Google’s Project Ara, a modular phone that used magnets to connect smaller components to the phone, allowing you to build it as if you were assembling something with Legos.

Modular was touted as a potential breakthrough innovation in smartphones. LG tried its luck with its G5 phone, which allowed it to swap the bottom of the device for different accessories like grips and hi-fi speakers. The trend died out as quickly as it emerged, with Google suspending the project and then quietly shutting it down. The G5 was such a failure that LG followed up with a much more conventional phone the following year.

“The biggest problem is that fully modular designs are more attractive to engineers than consumers,” said Avi Greengart, analyst at Techsponential. “Smartphones are highly evolved products, and people buy the best phone they can afford to meet their needs now, not a platform to play with later.”

Moto Mods represented a simplified version of the modular concept, offering a complete phone with different backs that you can exchange. That concept allowed Motorola’s Moto Z3 to be the first 5G phone on Verizon’s network, thanks to a 5G Mod that was placed on the back of the device. But even then, a phone without a Mod felt like half a device, and the gimmick was fundamental to the phone.

Apple has refined it even further, offering a complete phone on the iPhone 12, but with the option to attach accessories magnetically.

“MagSafe is brilliant in its simplicity,” Greengart said.

Malony called the advent of MagSafe a “transformational time” for the aftermarket, and he expects a wave of different accessories to emerge from the industry.

“Things like this change the game,” he said.