It's crazy that people downvoted your post. I guess they prefer every aspect of life and society be mandated. I wonder if they will change their toon when the next mandate is something they don't want.
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EU Reaches Agreement to Force iPhone and AirPods to Adopt USB-C by Fall 2024
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I'm just thankful the citizens and governments of the EU are doing something here.
Our American government is fully bought and paid for by these corporations
Our American government is fully bought and paid for by these corporations
Turkey is a partner of the EU but not a member. Hungary is probably the quasi-democracy you are thinking of.
The problem is not that the EU decides on these types of regulations. It's that a dozen other countries will follow suit with their own similar variations of legislation that may not have any mechanism to accommodate evolving standards and will require repeal and replace of the law as a whole. These laws may also have language that locks the port to something specific that may already be out of date or on the verge of being out of date now. Then it becomes not just changing the EU's mind it also become dealing with countries like UK, India, or Australia, or states like California that arbitrarily decided to set higher standards for a wide spectrum of tech and consumer goods. This is not hyperbole. This happens all the time. Model laws and copycat legislation have a long history of causing more harm than good.
According to the EU it all comes from poor downtrodden EU plebs. 'Multi-national' in EU parlance means any company not based in the EU.
Everything you’re saying is my point: the EU is throwing their weight around and rather than just placing the burden on their own people, they are imposing their views on the world.
I feel like they can only do this so many times before the rest of the world takes a stand. And does this particular issue really have the best ROI on the political capital spent?
Cool. The companies could still be held liable without further legislation.
If it weren't for DOUBLE standards, some would have NO standards...
All of this is just great until another geographic section of the planet with power says they are mandating a different connector type. Say China and Russia come along and say that a different, proprietary connector is now the legislated standard? All it takes for this to become a total **** show is a spat between governments and god knows that never happens. 
All you need to do with this example is to look at power plugs.
All you need to do with this example is to look at power plugs.
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I know the perfect solution - empower the same government to dictate MORE! /s
Surprised at the amount of people on this thread who are against this.
Sure, I get that - in the USA especially - there can be a knee-jerk, 'I don't want the government to tell me what to do' attitude, however what's wrong about:
Sure, I get that - in the USA especially - there can be a knee-jerk, 'I don't want the government to tell me what to do' attitude, however what's wrong about:
- Being able to have one cable / charger for all of your devices?
- Cutting down on e-waste because manufacturers couldn't decide on a charging standard?
- And in fact they're being pretty considerate to laptop manufacturers and giving them even longer to come up with a common set of charging standard (one has to hope that MagSafe is not endangered here...)
- And for any future charging standards, tech companies now know that they'll need to agree on a standard and all adhere to it. Like they've previously done with Wi-Fi, ethernet, USB-A and now FIDO and Matter etc. etc. etc.
There is no problem.
You hit on the majority of the resistance…
It’s the ingrained USA mentality of “get government out of everything” (no matter what)
In the current American political climate we wouldn’t be able to pass legislation to put stripes on the roads.
(“No WAY is anyone going to tell me what side I can drive on!”)
The country is just tearing itself apart by arguing about everything, no matter what.
The guy from the EU said that they will have a continuous dialogue with the tech industry so that they can update their legislation. I took that to mean that they are referring to inductive charging.
I think that as long as there is a consensus - and a good reason to - in the tech industry to move to a new standard in a particular time frame - the EU will be good with it.
It's unfortunate that legislation was necessary. But Apple should have done the right thing and switched to USB-C years ago. Sadly, the free market failed here, and intervention was justified IMO.
This is an absurd amount of cope. "The EU is going to get left in the dust by this next super connector that hasn't even been invented yet, just you wait and see!".
We're talking about Apple being forced to abandon a slow proprietary connection in favor of a universal one that is faster and can provide more power. If Apple was going to innovate on cables/ports, we wouldn't be stuck with USB 2.0-speed lightning cables in 2022.
Its silly to try and construct a hypothetical future case to support your argument when its almost the exact opposite of whats happening presently in reality.
When the next super connector (USB 5?)comes around, Apple can do what they did and should have done on USB-C. Work with industry partners and development groups to create a better connector, work with regulators to have it codified as the standard, & then deploy it quickly to all of their products.
Apple helped develop USB-C. They shouldn't need to be forced to adopt it!
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You make a great point here - sadly, it does feel as if the USA is basically using the EU to regulate the tech industry by proxy because of the polarisation that exists in the USA (I'm not in or from the USA so apologies if I'm not understanding things correctly).
The EU is too big a market for Apple to ignore - it's basically Apple's secondary market (ditto for most export industries in the USA) so if the EU decides on regulation, Apple basically has to apply it globally, because it's just too hard otherwise.
I.e. I don't see the 2024 iPhones in the USA having lightening sockets whilst they have USB-C sockets in the EU.
See also: The forthcoming EU anti-trust re. app stores and App Store commission and preferential treatment of a company's own services... 🍿
You are understanding things perfectly and many of us in the USA are very happy that the EU is taking the lead here.
Even if they mandate the same one, you now have multiple regulatory bodies with different objectives to lobby if you want to create a new one.All of this is just great until another geographic section of the planet with power says they are mandating a different connector type. Say China and Russia come along and say that a different, proprietary connector is now the legislated standard? All it takes for this to become a total **** show is a spat between governments and god knows that never happens.
All you need to do with this example is to look at power plugs.
Well said, you can propose a new standard but everyone has to agree to it and have something to offer that current standard doesn't. EU is literally making lives easier for everyone, unlike a joke that is US politics where everyone disagrees with almost everything for no good reason.
This is a good point. The current policy is essentially a ex post facto tax on Apple users and transfer payment to peripheral makers. Add the massive surge in ewaste this will precipitate and there’s an unrecognized ecological cost as well.
When I excerpt your post as above, does the problem start to become more clear?