Apple has changed its mind on not licensing Lightning and 30-pin combo charging adapters to third-party companies like POP Charger. An Apple spokesperson reportedly reached out to Ars Technica earlier today telling the publication that the company has changed its MFi (Made for iPod) program guidelines to support devices that charge devices that use both the 30-pin dock connector as well as the newly released Lightning dock connector. We’ve embedded Apple’s statement after the break.
“Our technical specifications provide clear guidelines for developing accessories and they are available to MFi licensees for free. We support accessories that integrate USB and Lightning connectors, but there were technical issues that prevented accessories from integrating 30-pin and Lightning connectors, so our guidelines did not allow this. We have been working to resolve this and have updated our guidelines to allow accessories to integrate both 30-pin and Lightning connectors to support charging.”
This change to Apple’s MFi guidelines is a huge win for the folks behind POP Charger, who came out yesterday saying that they planned on returning over $100,000 to their Kickstarter backers. This was because Apple “killed” the charger by making it incompatible with both 30-pin and Lightning devices.
