Apple Now Selling Lightning-to-MicroUSB Adapter

It's not necessarily making all their peripherals useless, they still sell the iPhone 4 and 4S that use those accessories. No one complained when Samsung released 19 different ports throughout the duration of phone releases before settling on on microUSB. Think about those people that had to change accessories due to a new port because they couldn't keep the same port for each iteration of a phone.

It only made sense to make the connector different due to the thinness of the device, if they had left the 30 pin connector, the iPhone 5 wouldn't have been made as it compromised the design of everything else. It's not the first time a company has changed their connector and at least they are guaranteeing it a long life, just like the 30 pin connector had.