Apple is said to drop its proprietary Lightning charging port in favor of industry standard USB-C in next year's iPhones (2019).

Citing sources at several IC (integrated circuit) vendors, Cage Chao of Digitimes, claims that Apple is redesigning chargers and related interface for its next-generation iPhone and iPad devices, and will likely have its 2019 series of iPhones come with USB Type-C support.

Moving from a proprietary standard to an open one would seem like a strange move for Apple, but Chao explains Apple's reasoning as a desire to unite the charging standards of its MacBook and iPhone ranges.

Speculation circulated previously in the smartphone market that Apple would adopt Type-C interface in this year's iPhone series slated for launch later in 2018, but Chao said that Apple is still in its redesign phase. That means one more year of Lightning ports.

In 2016, Apple removed the 3.5mm headphone jack and drove wireless headphone adoption with AirPods. 2017 took the next step with the introduction of wireless charging.

Apple's 2018 iPhone line-up is expected to include s so-called 'budget iPhone X' (6.1-inch) and the super-sized (6.5-inch ) iPhone X Plus.

Apple insider Ming-Chi Kuo claims that the "budget" version of the iPhone X will start from as low as $800.