One must wonder why they chose to expend significant R&D to make a complicated, power-sucking adapter for use on a mobile device that provides sub-par output and costs quite a bit more than a "dumb" cable.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I feel like Lightning is just the next Firewire without all the usefulness that FW had (low latency, dedicated bus that wasn't USB, lots of pro audio gear that worked with it, ability to daisy-chain, faster real-world speeds than USB, near-ubiquity before FW800 came out, super small form factor (the 4pin is tiny; not much bigger than a lightning)).
Maybe I'm missing something, but I feel like Lightning is just the next Firewire without all the usefulness that FW had (low latency, dedicated bus that wasn't USB, lots of pro audio gear that worked with it, ability to daisy-chain, faster real-world speeds than USB, near-ubiquity before FW800 came out, super small form factor (the 4pin is tiny; not much bigger than a lightning)).