We regularly struggle with USB connections. The developer behind it explained that it was a conscious decision. In hindsight, this could have been solved more easily, but at the time, the conscious decision saved a lot of money.
USB devices are used by pretty much all of you in everyday life: whether as a USB stick, gaming mouse, or wired USB headset.
But all devices, regardless of their intended purpose, have one thing in common: They drive us to despair because we almost always seem to plug in the USB-A connector the wrong way round the first time.
The developer of the USB standard explained back then that this was actually intentional. Because in this way, costs could be saved.
You always plug in USB devices the wrong way so developers could save costs
Ajay Bhatt is an Indian-American computer scientist and was significantly involved in the development of the USB standard.
Bhatt explained in an interview that this decision, that you would plug USB sticks in incorrectly at first, was actually intentional. Because the initial focus of USB development was primarily on cost savings.
Because when introducing a new standard, you have to be as economical as possible. This is how Bhatt justified the team’s decision at that time to Designnews magazine with the words:
If you pay a lot of costs upfront for an unproven technology, it might not work. That was our fear. In the beginning, you have to be really cost-conscious. In hindsight, you could say it could have been better. But compared to where we were with serial and parallel connections, USB was significantly better
If you had designed the USB connector to be reversible, he added, it would have required double the number of wires and even more circuits. All things that cost money and would have led to a higher price for the consumer.
As a solution to the plugging issue, USB-C is now seen as the answer: Because USB-C takes on many tasks of the old USB versions in everyday life and can be inserted on both sides. However, the new connector also has a downside. Because new problems are now piling up that did not exist before: USB-C as a standard was supposed to make everything easier, but now it’s worse than before
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