EU Reaches Agreement to Force iPhone and AirPods to Adopt USB-C by Fall 2024

[_Spinn_]

While it is inevitable that Apple would move to USB-C at some point, I don't like this kind of legislation. Now what happens if companies want to move to something better than USB-C?

I also have mixed feelings about this because lightning seems like a superior physical connector but it will be nice to have a universal connector with USB-C. Also USB-C is a total cluster from the consumer standpoint - all cables and ports aren't equal and it is difficult to figure out what port/cable supports which feature.

 

[polyphenol]

Imagine if this was back when we had micro USB as a "standard".....they would have said...can't have usb-c - it will generate too much waste.

over reaching idiots

Let us assume micro-USB had been mandated years ago.

The industry would, surely, have argued that the physical design, its power capacity and its data potential, were all inadequate for future products. At which point everyone could have sat round a table and come up with a micro-USB replacement option.

Obvious primary requirements being reversible, higher power, higher data potential.

Once some sort of agreement had been thrashed out, everyone would have been able to see the likely future path and worked towards it.

Even now, no-one is saying USB-C is the absolute end-point. For example, I can imagine a USB-C style of connector with the possible addition of an optical data connection. Or modified USB-C that is fully capable of withstanding immersion (and easy to dry) even if it doesn't function under water.

 

[icanhazmac]

if iPhones have to have USB-C in 2024, why would anyone buy an iPhone in 2023?

Because they want or need one? Is the charging/data transfer port really the driving feature guiding your purchase decision?

 

[trip1ex]

The plan, unveiled last year, was provisionally approved Tuesday and will save consumers an estimated 250 million euros ($267 million) each year according to the European Commission. The European Parliament and 27 EU countries need to sign off on the agreement.

I doubt it saves consumers any money. And I wouldn't trust an estimate done by government to show that government is doing its job no more than I would trust an estimate from Apple showing they are doing their job. And how many people are in the EU? 450 million? Their estimate is saying it will save every person in the EU 59 cents or .55 Euros. People lose more than that in their couch cushions. Perhaps government should create a new branch to legislate the design of couches to save people from losing their spare change.

And a waste of taxpayer money can mean various things like, for example, usbc being likely to happen anyway in an iPhone. IT's not like Apple did not switch from lightning on iPads to USBC. Why did they do that? Probably because they thought it was the better/cheaper choice?

another reason why something like this ruling is likely a waste of taxpayer money, is that tech changes quick. For all you know a better connector standard hits the market very soon rendering the previous standard obsolete. And then...what legislation is behind and takes forever to catch up. The result is delayed innovation and greater bureaucratic red tape.

also ,as it was, the lightning cable was included with every iPhone at least here in the US. So I don't think I will be buying fewer cables. I think most people will still want a cables to charge their phone and laptop at the same time. I'm not sure it cuts down on the number of cables one has around the house.

I think such a law can have unintended consequences as well. Such as people buying more cables because they are so interchangeable. That could easily become the case. People can easily switch to the mentality of well I will buy a cable for the bathroom because it fits every device and someone will need it. I will buy a few extras for each place because I can always use them for any device.

There are good reasons to remain highly skeptical.

Another big picture reason to remain skeptical is ..if government was so good at saving the consumer money in this space then you would think prices would be lower in Europe than the US. But somehow I doubt that.

 

[siddavis]

The American view of freedom and rights as defined by the ability to sell whatever you want is not a shared value anywhere else on earth. How is that hard to understand? The idea that Apple has some divine right to sell stuff and that the people of the EU do not have the right to regulate what is sold is frankly laughable.

If you want to sell a phone in the EU, it has to meet certain standards. It can't cause radio interference, has to support all of the official languages, and it has to have USB-C.

There shouldn't be anything controversial about any of those requirements.

This isn't any different than saying car brake lights have to be red in color and that turn signals must be amber. It might limit your freedom as a designer to make the perfect RGB-lite gamer car, but that isn't as important as having a common standard.

How is causing radio interference or brake light color safety even comparable to a connector used for charging?

 

[evangw]

I wish the EU would keep their subjugation kink to themselves.

No offense, but you're probably not old enough to remember back before the EU was pushing for things like this. There were a million connectors before, charging was awful, and you often even had different connectors for charging as for actually connecting. The EU setting this also does not mean we are stuck with USB-C until the end of time; microUSB was mandated before USB-C was, and now everything is switching to USB-C. If someone comes up with a way better connector 10 years down the line, legislation will allow that if it is well explained.

It is WAY better like this, just like it is wonderful that the EU mandated all electric car chargers to be the same. I have an electric car, and it is wonderful that someone set a standard. If it turns out that standard isn't good enough in 10 years for 1000 W chargers, then they will make that argument and release a new and different type of charging cable. It just means they have to make a good rationalization for it.

 

[dk001]

I watch a lot of repair videos and I see way way more instances of busted USB-C ports than Lightning ports. Of course your mileage may vary and the overall number of broken ports is probably well within the norm for both types.

For me, in my family, we probably have had over 50 devices with Lightning since the iPhone 5 (2012) and zero have needed the port to be repaired or replaced. I've had maybe a handful of lightning cables just "wear out", but I'd much rather have the cable wear out than the port.

I don't have that many USB-C devices in the family ... my work laptop, a few Nintendo Switch's, a few school Chromebooks, and Nintendo controllers. None have failed, either, so I have that going for me. The only thing is that the Nintendos can be a bit finicky on whether it wants to charge or not, but that might be more on Nintendo than the USB port itself.


The difference between having USB-C on the iPhone vs. iPads/Macs is that the iPhone is typically used at a much higher usage rate. Plus, at least for me, it spends way more time in my pocket, collecting lint and other crap. It's used in outdoor environments way more often. So the ports may end up "abused" more often. Plus, my phone gets charge at least once a night, and with an aging battery, it's charged at least twice a day, plus I tend to charge it in my car when using GPS. So the port gets much more usage than my iPad (which I might charge twice a week, at most).

I don't disagree that the current Lightning connector is long in the tooth. There are things that it just can't do. But if Apple could up the capabilities of the current Lightning port to include the advantages of USB3/USB4 and be able to keep compatibility with current Lightning accessories and devices, I'd rather they do that. Alas, that probably won't happen and I'll be dragged into the USB-C standard eventually.

To be fair, all my devices except the iPhone use USB-C including phones. They both work, the ports hold up well, the cables wear out at about the same rate. For me it is all about transfer speed especially with higher storage iPhones.

 

[frenchcamp49er]

If something comes around better Apple will just switch and the EU will be left with old and outdated tech. Hell they should just leave the EU

 

[bgillander]

The weird thing is USB-C is a pretty fragmented standard, with the connector being one of the few things actually consistent. When I got my first device, I was shopping for a cable and thinking “regular, high-speed, high-speed and high-power, or Thunderbolt… really?!?”

 

[frenchcamp49er]

The cost of that choice would be setting up production of two distinct devices. (Which is bound to cost more than doing so for a single device.) Then putting them up for sale and, if the sales are strongly in one direction, possibly ending up with containers full of devices with the other option. And possibly having to significantly discount the ones which didn't sell well.

Apple didn't offer 30-pin and Lightning options of the same device, did they? So why should they do so for a future device using USB-C rather than Lightning?

We consumers really don't have attribute by attribute freedom to choose. We get offered a number of devices each with a whole bundle of specs already decided. And, all too often, cost is a major determinant rather than specs - and we go for the lowest cost that is good enough.

Maybe Apple other tech companies will hold off on the newest and greatest.

 

[frenchcamp49er]

The weird thing is USB-C is a pretty fragmented standard, with the connector being one of the few things actually consistent. When I got my first device, I was shopping for a cable and thinking “regular, high-speed, high-speed and high-power, or Thunderbolt… really?!?”

Its what the geniuses in the EU want, more fragmentation

 

[Wags]

I was hoping they were going to force all landlords to install margarita machines in all their units.

 

[Yr Blues]

You know what's dumb about mandates, what if Apple comes out with a better plug than the janky USB-C plug? Are they stuck with older tech because of the laws?

 

[trip1ex]

The American view of freedom and rights as defined by the ability to sell whatever you want is not a shared value anywhere else on earth. How is that hard to understand? The idea that Apple has some divine right to sell stuff and that the people of the EU do not have the right to regulate what is sold is frankly laughable.

If you want to sell a phone in the EU, it has to meet certain standards. It can't cause radio interference, has to support all of the official languages, and it has to have USB-C.

There shouldn't be anything controversial about any of those requirements.

This isn't any different than saying car brake lights have to be red in color and that turn signals must be amber. It might limit your freedom as a designer to make the perfect RGB-lite gamer car, but that isn't as important as having a common standard.

USB-C isn't a safety feature. The US has plenty of laws regulating products in the name of safety.

Mandating USB-C has plenty of room for controversy because it isn't a safety feature, isn't obviously a better port for phones and airpods and because it also isn't clear Apple wasn't planning to move eventually to USBC for iphone and Airpods. Also plenty of controversy whether this law actually saves anyone money and/or saves waste.

I doubt my household buys any fewer cables if the iPHone and airpods go to USBC. Those devices already came with lightning cables. I have plenty of lightning cables. And the phone was really the only device in which we had multiple cables for because of how frequently they get used and need charging and how mobile they are. Unclear and remains to be seen whether my household would actually end up buying fewer cables because of a USBC requirement.

I mean maybe we buy more knowing they are good for every device and because having more is more convenient.

Even the EU's estimates on how much money they will save customers in the EU adds to a whole .55 Euros per person. Not exactly earth shattering. And the EU has every incentive to exaggerate their estimate.

 

[tgwaste]

As I have said before, I'm totally on board with Apple needing to support USB-C on their devices and totally against it being enshrined in legislation.

The problem is they wont. What Apple is doing is taking advantage of the consumer and in times like this the only thing to do is legislate. If Apple would had adopted the damn thing 5 years ago when it should had this probably would not had come up.

 

[timber]

USB-C isn't a safety feature. The US has plenty of laws regulating products in the name of safety.

Mandating USB-C has plenty of room for controversy because it isn't a safety feature, isn't obviously a better port for phones and airpods and because it also isn't clear Apple wasn't planning to move eventually to USBC for iphone and Airpods. Also plenty of controversy whether this law actually saves anyone money and/or waste.

I doubt my household buys any fewer cables if the iPHone and airpods go to USBC. Those things already came with lightning cables. I have plenty of lightning cables. And the phone was really the only device in which we had multiple cables for because of how frequently they get used and need charging and how mobile they are.

EVs having the same plug isn't a safety feature either and still in the EU Teslas charge everywhere whatever the charger and even Tesla decided to start opening the supercharging network and sell to other brands customers.

 

[darngooddesign]

I hope Apple doesn’t any shady tricks like by providing a mini lightning to usb-c adaptor like they did with the micro-usb.

Im glad they did that; can you imagine being stuck with a Micro-USB iPhone?

 

[trip1ex]

if iPhones have to have USB-C in 2024, why would anyone buy an iPhone in 2023?

because who cares what port the phone has.

 

[darngooddesign]

if iPhones have to have USB-C in 2024, why would anyone buy an iPhone in 2023?

Because the number of people who fret over the port type, or are inconvenience by Lighting, is statistically small.

 

[visualseed]

The American view of freedom and rights as defined by the ability to sell whatever you want is not a shared value anywhere else on earth. How is that hard to understand? The idea that Apple has some divine right to sell stuff and that the people of the EU do not have the right to regulate what is sold is frankly laughable.

If you want to sell a phone in the EU, it has to meet certain standards. It can't cause radio interference, has to support all of the official languages, and it has to have USB-C.

There shouldn't be anything controversial about any of those requirements.

This isn't any different than saying car brake lights have to be red in color and that turn signals must be amber. It might limit your freedom as a designer to make the perfect RGB-lite gamer car, but that isn't as important as having a common standard.

Regulating for standards for safety is much different than regulate for consumer preference. In the end companies will adhere to whatever laws govern their products in the markets where they want to sell them but let’s not pretend that the EU has a good track record of implementing sustainable regulations. Especially when they sell them as economically and environmentally friendly and neither pan out because all they have done is shift the burden and non-compliance out of market. Sure they post short-term positives but the long tail negatives of those initiatives come to bear in unforeseen ways.

Just to give you a somewhat benign example based on your analogy about car lights. For decades they were not only regulated by color, they were also regulated by size and bulb output wattage that was decided in the 1940s. This prevented automakers from using smaller, brighter, and longer lasting LED lighting that actually became commercially practical in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. This dictated a lot of styling decisions and kept a lot of potentially safer consumer desirable concept cars on the drawing boards for years. It’s only been in recent years that regulations were changed allowing more LED lighting in automobiles (still a lot of caveats) but it was decades after it was safely and commercially feasible.

Regulations have consequences even if done with good intentions

 

[ilikewhey]

Congratulations, you just employed a few hundreds friends and family members of government officials, with this idea. 😄


🤡 Lightening is considerably a more robust connector, provides positive locking, and requires less physical space on the device. The only thing that Apple is guilty of is not updating the specs. I'd take a lightning style thunderbolt connection over the the current design any day of the week.

And now that the EU is involved in the design of electronics, good luck ever progressing past what USB-C is currently spec'd at.

robust connector, arguable not. positive locking, you get the same on usbc. physical space, ok i'll give you that, but the margin negotiable. i had more lightening ports break, usbc so far, none.

 

[darngooddesign]

I'm entertained by the EU specifically saying fall 2024 so it would catch the iPhone 15. Be hilarious if Apple releases the 15 in summer. LOL

 

[icanhazmac]

i had more lightening ports break, usbc so far, none.

Anekdotal, see post #76, I have exactly the opposite experience.

 

[The Barron]

Y E S! Finally Apple will have to "get real" and not change out the connectors every time a new device is released. Bravo!

 

[GuruZac]

Because they want or need one? Is the charging/data transfer port really the driving feature guiding your purchase decision?

Since I have a 13 Pro, yes, I am unlikely to upgrade next year (which was my plan) for the simple fact I want USB-C and will wait until 2024 if that is when USB-C is to come. I wouldn't doubt we see USB-C in 2023, however, as it would make sense to go ahead and make that move with a likely redesigned iPhone in 2023.