The EU have agreed legislation, alternate link, forcing all future smartphones sold in the EU — including Apple's iPhone — be equipped with USB-C port for wired charging by autumn 2024. The rule will also apply to other electronic devices including tablets, digital cameras, headphones, handheld video game consoles, and e-readers. Laptops will have to comply with the rule at a later date.
The legislation still needs to be approved by the EU Parliament and Council later this year, but this appears to be a formality. In a press release, the European Parliament stated clearly that the law will be in place "by autumn 2024." By this date, all devices covered by the law and sold in the EU will have to use USB-C for wired charging.
EU agrees single mobile charging port in blow to Apple:
Apple (AAPL.O) will have to change the connector on iPhones sold in Europe by 2024 after EU countries and lawmakers agreed on Tuesday to a single mobile charging port for mobile phones, tablets and cameras in a world first.
The political intervention, which the European Commission said would make life easier for consumers and save them money, came after companies failed to reach a common solution.
Brussels has been pushing for a single mobile charging port for more than a decade, prompted by complaints from iPhone and Android users about having to switch to different chargers for their devices.
iPhones are charged from a Lightning cable, while Android-based devices use USB-C connectors.
Half the chargers sold with mobile phones in 2018 had a USB micro-B connector, while 29% had a USB-C connector and 21% a Lightning connector, according to a 2019 Commission study.
"By autumn 2024, USB Type-C will become the common charging port for all mobile phones, tablets and cameras in the EU," the European Parliament said in a statement.
EU industry chief Thierry Breton said the deal would save around 250 million euros ($267 million) for consumers.
"It will also allow new technologies such as wireless charging to emerge and to mature without letting innovation become a source of market fragmentation and consumer inconvenience," he said.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2022, @03:08PM (1 child)
Imagine a world where there wasn't seatbelt regulations? Do you think everybody would have seen those cool seatbelts in NASCAR and said "I want to wear one!" I seriously doubt it. (Do you remember how much pushback there was against seatbelts? There was a surge of buying shirts with diagonal stripe designs just to make it harder to see that they weren't wearing seatbelts.)
By analogy, it's like saying we shouldn't outlaw incandescent light bulbs because in the future there may be some new technology which relies on that, and then we'd be stuck with that law. Maybe, but (1) that's speculative that new technology comes about, (2) assumes people always do what's in their long-term best interest, and (3) laws can change.
Moreover, speaking from empirical evidence rather than armchair theorycrafting, I think the change when the mandated that all cellphone providers use a standard back some 10-ish years ago has been a great change. Do you remember when every cell phone had its own unique charger? I do, and it was terrible. Based on that past success, forcing Apple to standardize seems like it is more likely to cause good than cause harm. (This is also evidence that the EU does change regulations as the times change, by the way.)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 10 2022, @11:39PM
The obvious rebuttal: marketing. Get a few race car drivers that walked away from spectacular wrecks to give awesome testimonials.
Which is a good reason actually. On your points: 1) new technology does come about, 2) it doesn't matter what's in peoples' long term interests - that's not government's job nor are they any good at it, and 3) laws change a whole lot slower than technology does. Everyone has terrible laws that have stuck around for decades or centuries because they aren't terrible enough to enough people for enough political will to change them.