Physical connectors, especially the small and relatively fragile ones for eg.
microUSB, are prone to damage, breakage and other abuse that renders them
inoperative. There's also the cable that needs carried for each device. In a
retail environment, I'd estimate the lifespan of a microUSB port (or fixed cable
if you don't want to have device owners carry their own cable) at about 1 week
max.
This isn't a theoretical estimate. I did some hardware design for a
truck-stop company. We were dealing with numeric keypads for doors. To get
failure rates due to damage down to an acceptable level, we ended up going with
an all-metal keypad rated to survive continuous pounding with a 5lb
sledgehammer. Anything less sturdy than that tended to be damaged so badly it
wouldn't work within a month. A microUSB connector open to bending, twisting,
jamming and having paper, bubblegum etc. wedged into it by small children?
Yeeeeeeahright... [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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