For iPhone 5 and his lightning connector, Apple has released an adapter that allows users to use old cables and accessories with 30-pin ports. This adapter costs $30, a rather high price that made some people wonder why Apple chose to charge so much for it. Well, the answer is here in pictures, and they show us that the adapter has, by and large, the same components that we find in iPhone 5, they help the entire Lightning technology to work. These Lightning ports use certain chips to dynamically rearrange the pins and offer various functionalities, without them nothing could be used, and all these components justify the price of 30$/€.
The chips look unfamiliar, but with the same metal finish and some have lasered text. They all appear to be custom and trying to figure out what does what is fruitless. I really took this apart for the DIY community to ascertain if the DAC [digital-to-analog converter] in this thing is actually good, but it's quite unclear. It's probably some integrated audio circuitry in a larger processing chip, that's how these things tend to be done now. One of the chips reads Apple on it with a very long serial number. Another reads 8533 23AP CAB.
Unpacking the adapter, the person who did the whole operation realized that the product is well built by Apple, the internal components are glued to the plastic structure, and this gives them durability over time. The whole adapter is difficult to disassemble, and since you have done this operation, you can go and buy another one. Apple is trying to prevent users from using the adapter for anything other than what the company intended, but so far most have found that it doesn't work with certain accessories, mainly because of the way it's built, so if you're interested in purchasing one , you should probably check your accessory first.
I really had high hopes that I could get into this thing and attach an audio output cable, but I should have known better. This thing is even more fearsomely reinforced than the Lightning USB cord, by a factor of 10, surely to thwart those who want to hack it, and also so that it cannot break easily. Nobody should balk at paying $29 for this after they see what's inside, though.
In conclusion, this time the price requested by Apple for its accessory is justified, and without it you cannot do much with third-party accessories for iDevices.
