
An oral history of USB, the port that changed everything - vontzy
https://www.fastcompany.com/3060705/an-oral-history-of-the-usb
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tompic823
Ajay Bhatt on why USB plugs weren’t reversible:

> We had looked at [making the plug reversible], but the whole goal here was
> to make it very inexpensive, and at that point, we were trying to solve all
> the USB problems with two wires. At that point, if you added wires to make
> things flippable, you have to add wires, and you also have to add a lot of
> silicon. Wires and pins cost real money, so we decided to keep it as cheap
> as possible... In hindsight, a flippable connector would have been better.

~~~
letouj
Even if making the connector reversible would have ended up costing too much
money, why not at least make it (more clearly) asymmetrical to reduce the
guesswork involved in plugging in the cable? Yes, I know the USB logo is
supposed to face up and the seam on the connector is supposed to face down,
but those seem like half-measures at best. At least they seem to have figured
it out with later iterations of the connectors.

