I've been plugging bits of kit in for most of my life: scientific equipment, industrial machines, theatrical lighting set-ups, computers, and all manner of other devices, over 4 decades.
The Apple Lightning connector is by far the best thing I've come across in that time for any sort of consumer device. It is well-engineered, reversible, robust, will pull-out in extremis, and can be cleaned without readily damaging the pins.
Apple's cables, on the other hand, are not so wonderful, as they insist on eschewing other designers' more sophisticated approaches to strain relief, but a little bit of Hellerman sleeving works wonders there...
Micro USB, on the other hand, is frightful; my wife and I have bought at least a dozen new cables in the last 12 months due to failure of the micro usb plug. Any device which has to be used whilst charging is at-risk of poor connection. I'm constantly staggered by the number of handheld devices with charging ports at the side, such that gravity alone (acting on a cantilever) drags the cable free. It is an unholy mess of a poor standard implemented poorly.
This is a very sad day.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
