But if you want to really get all the juice in and out of your new iPhone, especially if you’re buying a 15 Pro or Pro Max, you’ll need the $69 Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable
I mean, that is an outright lie. There is nothing a TB4 cable would add over a USB 3.2 cable here.
The premise of the article is you buying an adapter from Apple to make your old stuff work with the new phone and highlighting how ridiculously priced they are. It's not a lie, as this is the actual price of the adapter. Sure, you can buy third-party stuff just like you can buy a phone from a different manufacturer and avoid the issue altogether, but that's obvious, no?
Not talking about an adapter, but a simple usb-c to usb-c cable with usb 3.2 standard, They are basically wothless. I have a about 30 of them sitting in a box at the office.
There is simply no reason why you would need an expensive thunderbolt 4 cable to charge a phone or transfere data at 10Gbps. Either these "journalists" are lying or they don't understand USB.
A) you obviously glossed over (or intentionally omitted) the very next paragraph when you quoted the article in your original comment.
(I should remind you here that the beauty of USB-C is that Apple’s not the only company in charge of it. There are tons of cables out there, and for most people, there’s no reason you should need the mega-fast ones anyway. Just get the charger that matches your charging speed and your wall plug, and you’re golden.)
B) if this product had no use, Apple wouldn't have spent money manufacturing it.
C) if this cable is useless, what cheaper alternative does Apple offer that is capable of giving you both fast charging speed and fast data transfer speed?
A. I'm not ommitting it. It still suggests that there would a benefit of using a TB4 cable. There isn't.
B. The product is very useful if you want to connect something with actual thunderbolt 4 capabilites. Like laptop to a docking station. It's just that in the case using the higher-standard cable doesn't add anything overusing a cheaper one.
C. If you just care about charging, you can get a offical apple cable for $20. They don't sell USB 3.2 cables from what I can see in their shop. So bascially if you want to use the new IPhones max transfer speed (which is just double what what you can do with the cheap one) they force you to buy a cable that is 10x more capable and costs 4x as much.
But you can could get a cable that can utilise the full capacity for around $10 bucks from Samsung or other major brands.
It still suggests that there would a benefit of using a TB4 cable. There isn't.
They don't sell USB 3.2 cables from what I can see in their shop. So bascially if you want to use the new IPhones max transfer speed (which is just double what what you can do with the cheap one) they force you to buy a cable that is 10x more capable and costs 4x as much.
Please refer back to my original comment stating the premise of the article. You just described the exact reason why they included this cable in the article (including your phrasing of 'forced to buy'). It's because Apple doesn't offer you any alternative.