By encouraging loyal Apple customers to ditch all their lightning cables en masse.
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European Lawmakers Want to Force All Smartphones to Have Same Charging Port, Apple Defends Lightning
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By encouraging loyal Apple customers to ditch all their lightning cables en masse.
Uh… isn’t Apple the one that eliminates standard ports all the time, necessitating the use of special cables or external adapters? I mean, I’m generally ok with eliminating standard ports if it moves new technologies along, but their response here seems antithetical with their usual MO. Apple is most likely against it because of the money they make licensing their proprietary Lightning plug to 3rd parties. I say we see some of that ol’ Apple “courage” and move towards USB-C as soon as possible so I can simplify my wire collection!
They should require that all phones from all manufacturers standardize on the IEEE 1284 connector.😁
The European Parliament is always very busy and regulates a lot of things very well. The EU pretty much has some of the best if not the best pro-consumer legislation and safety regulation in the world. We set the standards everyone else has to meet.
I'm an Apple fan but I see no reason why iOS devices cannot simply use USB-C ports, it would be much simpler. Macs these days are busting with USB-C ports anyway.
iPhones won’t have ports in 5 years, so it’s a moot point.
I'm waiting for Apple to state that a USB C to Lightning dongle would be "inconvenient."
The port itself hasn’t changed since its inception. Don’t confuse USB protocols with the port. The port has gained new versions of the USB protocol, as well as some other protocols, but the port itself is the same. That’s USB-C’s strength, the ability to evolve as industry needs change.
You are right, politicians love to control people since they think that people are too stupid to make decisions for themselves. It gives them power to extract money from the people being controlled and the companies they are controlling, a win-win for the politicians, a lose-lose for liberty.
Do you really see Apple wanting to bundle in a wireless charger in with every iPhone?
I have about 3 shoe cartons full of cables from all different kind of devices, that will never be used again, but came with the product. Multiply that by probably a billion people and you have a lot of wasted resources.
Back in the mid-80s, when I was a student in Germany, we learned about directives like this being used as “non-tariff trade barriers.” This kind of government behavior had me sour on the European Union not much later and certainly since the introduction to the Euro.
Why does the government get into the business of picking winners and losers in the competition between standards? It’s not their job.
Why does the government get into the business of picking winners and losers in the competition between standards? It’s not their job.
The flaw here is that USB was a technology initiated by an elective workgroup, not a bureaucracy. It was willingly adopted, not mandated.
If a connective technology is mandated by law the delay and cost of court battles on 'the new standard' and lawyers battling for control and royalties will stifle development. And all that ultimately leads to more cost to the consumer … always.
I don't think Apple is defending Lightning, per se … it is using it as the example that if a company desires an enhanced tool to improve its product it should not be impeded based on an arbitrary limitation.
When Lightning was introduced, regardless of what you think about it today, it was the only way Apple could achieve its goals.
No, that's what I meant. You have USB Type-C, version 3, 3.1, and 3.2, something something gen 1, gen 2... Heck, you can even do USB 1, 1.1 and 2 over type-C.
They’re rumored to come out with at least one model in 2021 that’s portless. So I imagine give it 5 years, that’ll become standard for every iPhone.
IIRC, The EU never mandated USB ports, just that they all had to be the same, and let the manufacturers figure it out.
Gee, if only a huge central bureaucracy could make ALL our decisions for us. That would make life just perfect.
A free market economy will always produce abundance, some of it will go to waste, no doubt. This is very natural. Nature is also very wasteful. Think of all the apple trees everywhere, whose apples never get picked but end up rotting on the ground below.
Conversely, the Soviets and in East-Germany their vassals attempted to optimize an entire economy through planning. You see, where that led.
Them meddling in anything always works out well also.
presumably more cables being produced and ultimately ending up in landfills, as without a standard people will need different chargers for different devices?
For instance, I use just one charger for my iPhone and iPad since their both lightning. If I had an Android phone I would need to carry to different chargers. I don’t know how much waste that actually produces, but I understand wanting to streamline things.
Personally, I’m fine with lightning, but if the switch is going to happen eventually, Apple might as well just pull off the bandaid, unless they really are just bidding time until they go totally port-less.
seeing how iPad Pro has USB-C I see no issue from Apple about this.
And I agree with EU here as its ridiculous how many standards are out there. I could host a dinner party and I will have at least 3 different charging ports from the guests. It should be one cable so everyone can benefit. Customer wins and companies will stop cluttering crap. USB-C is ready so lets all switch to that and be done with it. When better tech comes out then we can switch again. Its already annoying when travelling to have different socket for electricity throughout the world. Not to mention voltage etc. That should be unified too
And I agree with EU here as its ridiculous how many standards are out there. I could host a dinner party and I will have at least 3 different charging ports from the guests. It should be one cable so everyone can benefit. Customer wins and companies will stop cluttering crap. USB-C is ready so lets all switch to that and be done with it. When better tech comes out then we can switch again. Its already annoying when travelling to have different socket for electricity throughout the world. Not to mention voltage etc. That should be unified too
The finer philosophical question here to ask is this: "Is there an evolution of mass consciousness, and if so, does it break "The law of the normal gaussian distribution" in human intelligence.
Since when has Apple cared about install base when changing the ports on their devices?
How many billions of headphones with 3.5mm jacks have been sold, but Apple courageously removed that jack from the iPhone 7.
How many millions of floppy disks were sold before the iMac.
How many billions of USB-A devices were sold before the Thunderbolt 3/USB-C MacBooks.
How many billions of headphones with 3.5mm jacks have been sold, but Apple courageously removed that jack from the iPhone 7.
How many millions of floppy disks were sold before the iMac.
How many billions of USB-A devices were sold before the Thunderbolt 3/USB-C MacBooks.
If the European Union is truly concerned about e-waste they should force Android OEMs to provide updates so their devices aren’t obsolete a year after being sold. That’s a far more serious problem than charging cables.
Meanwhile, iPhones are frequently kept in service for 5 years.