When USB 2.0 was introduced, it was a huge increase in speed. USB 1.1 is 11 Mbps whereas 2.0 is 480 MBps (theoretical). When this happened some camera manufacturers (Nikon I believe was one of them?) were identified as changing the marketing on their cameras to "USB 2.0". What this actually meant though was "USB 2.0 Full Speed", which is USB 1.1 speeds. USB 2.0 Hi-speed is 480.
Consumers don't need this or want it. Manufacturers just don't want to say "USB <not latest version>".
You see the same thing with AT&T deciding its LTE iPhones are 5G because they want their network to sound more impressive than it is.
It's also why the strength bars on your phone show the strongest signal (2G/3G/4G) that your phone is getting, not the one its actually using.
The truth matters. False advertising matters. Markets only work with a minimum level of trust. All of this legerdemain erodes that trust.
I'm Australian and this is one place where I think the ACCC (equivalent to the FTC/FCC rolled into one) has way more teeth than their US equivalents. The ACCC, for example, ended ISPs advertising "unlimited" ISP plans that weren't truly unlimited (which was basically all of them). This also covered ISPs with hard or soft data caps where throttling would come into play. The ACCC also took ISPs to task on the truth in advertised speeds for services (which matters are lot for xDSL).
A more sensible standard would've been something like:
USB <version><plug>
eg USB 3.1C, USB 3.0A.
Or put the letter first.
But this whole USB 3.2 Gen 1 = USB 3.1 Gen 2 or whatever is just pure nonsense.
When USB 2.0 was introduced, it was a huge increase in speed. USB 1.1 is 11 Mbps whereas 2.0 is 480 MBps (theoretical). When this happened some camera manufacturers (Nikon I believe was one of them?) were identified as changing the marketing on their cameras to "USB 2.0". What this actually meant though was "USB 2.0 Full Speed", which is USB 1.1 speeds. USB 2.0 Hi-speed is 480.
Consumers don't need this or want it. Manufacturers just don't want to say "USB <not latest version>".
You see the same thing with AT&T deciding its LTE iPhones are 5G because they want their network to sound more impressive than it is.
It's also why the strength bars on your phone show the strongest signal (2G/3G/4G) that your phone is getting, not the one its actually using.
The truth matters. False advertising matters. Markets only work with a minimum level of trust. All of this legerdemain erodes that trust.
I'm Australian and this is one place where I think the ACCC (equivalent to the FTC/FCC rolled into one) has way more teeth than their US equivalents. The ACCC, for example, ended ISPs advertising "unlimited" ISP plans that weren't truly unlimited (which was basically all of them). This also covered ISPs with hard or soft data caps where throttling would come into play. The ACCC also took ISPs to task on the truth in advertised speeds for services (which matters are lot for xDSL).
A more sensible standard would've been something like:
USB <version><plug>
eg USB 3.1C, USB 3.0A.
Or put the letter first.
But this whole USB 3.2 Gen 1 = USB 3.1 Gen 2 or whatever is just pure nonsense.