Doncha' know--the EU is making sure you are "safe," so they are making sure you can't get any of those older models.
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Report: Apple to Stop Selling iPhone 14 and iPhone SE in EU This Month
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This is true. With CarPlay, there are many, many possible failure points, from the car port, to the cable, to your phone to software bugs in the car and in your phone or some of one and a little of the other.
It is an absolute nightmare to troubleshoot and the auto vendor and phone vendor always end up blaming each other.
And God forbid you have a beta on...
Yes, when Apple did the previous connector switch from the 30-pin connector to Lightning. A whole lot of people were very vocal in protesting the change, complaining about having to buy new cables, that Apple was just doing it to make more money, that the Lightning cable wouldn’t hold up. It got a lot of people worked up.
Apple may have feared that people would react the same when they switched to USB-C. Many of us thought that, too. You do still get some people posting here about how much they hate the change, but in general it seems that most people took it in stride and just moved on to USB-C. In part, probably because they already had USB-C cables and devices so it was an easier switch.
That’s actually how most standards come about. They either start as one companies product that the company submits to standards committees like Tesla NACS to J3400 or they come from committees that meet to lay out a new standard and companies like Apple propose new designs, like USB-C, that are then incorporated into the standard.
Untrue. Apple INVENTED USB-C together with Intel. Apple was moving toward USB-C for YEARS before the EU made it law. On MacBooks, iMacs, Mac Minis, iPad Pros, iPad Airs, iPad Minis, iPads, AirPod Pros, Chargers, Cables. And even iPhones since they already added USB-C to the iPhone 15 which they did not need to.
The one thing the EU has done right. Get that useless lightning port out of here.
It sounds too good to be true, so it might be. The only thing I can think of is maybe the screen on the iPhone SE 4 is actually noticeably worse than on the iPhone 14 or 15. Maybe it’s only 2x retina instead of 3x retina on all other OLED iPhones.
Or maybe the SE 4 slides into the $699 price point, the iPhone 15 moves down to $599, and the iPhone 14 is discontinued.
In 2012 Apple promised that Lightning would be the port for the iPhone for a decade. Remember people were angry at having to replace their 30-pin accessories. Lightning lasted 11 years. Meanwhile, Apple was the first company in the world to put a USB-C port in a device (MacBook in 2015).
Why? If somebody is in a desperate need of a new entry iPhone, they will still be able to get it from a third party remaining stock. There is also a large second-hand smartphone market, so I really do not see what the issue could be.
Most people will be driving electric cars one day. The point is we have legal mandates (in the UK at least) to hurry things along.
There is a legal mandate in the EU to ban the sale of non-USBC phones. That’s why Apple cannot continue making and selling the iPhone 14, regardless of any plans it has to “stay in business”.
That reminds me of this:
The iPhone 15 may be obsolete faster than any model in history - 9to5Mac
There’s a compelling iPhone 16 lineup and iPhone SE 4 coming soon—all with Apple Intelligence. Where does that leave the iPhone 15?
9to5mac.com
And now they have the brand new iPhone 16 with the worst usb-c protocol. 2.0
Expecting this to happen. But not many might be purchasing the older 14 series today. Anyway glad to see that Apple has made the switch to USB C
Ahah you know a$$le... They would have continued to make changes and new products just saying they were fixes...
Much better to beat hard with big companies.
Apple was also likely to introduce iPhones without any port. Well, there were rumors about this for a decade now. It didn't happen. And without this law, I'm sure USB-C wouldn't happen in iPhones for next few years. Also, the law only require USB-C as a charging port. It can handle 100W charging and yet Apple is stuck with 30W. You think USB-C is a bottleneck here?
One high power Usb-c charger can charge phones, tablets, BT speakers, headphones, cameras, drones, mices, game controllers, toys, even laptops, no matter which brand it is, as from 2026 EU mandated this for laptops too. Phones can even charge each other when connected directly.
Also can connect monitor, keyboard, wired mice & headsets, external drives, even ethernet.
Many vehicles already equipped with USB-c as well.
So everybody should be happy about it... and forget all adapters, different plugs forever.
Also can connect monitor, keyboard, wired mice & headsets, external drives, even ethernet.
Many vehicles already equipped with USB-c as well.
So everybody should be happy about it... and forget all adapters, different plugs forever.
I think Apple does what it thinks is best for the majority of its customers. The idea that Apple is intentionally hobbling its devices to what amounts to (in Apple’s terms) change under couch cushions worth of licensing money is laughable if you know anything about Apple, and I would suspect many inside of Apple would see it as offensive. Just because you have a different opinion than Apple about what’s best for its customers doesn’t mean they’re acting nefariously.
The vast majority of its customers don’t need USB-C. They certainly don’t need 100W charging and the associated stress on the battery that brings. They didn’t need high data transfer speeds USB-C bring because the overwhelming majority of iPhone users never plug anything other than a power cable into the phone.
USB-C’s only advantage for the vast, vast, vast majority of customers is “other devices use it too”. Which is great if you have a lot of devices, like I do, but most customers don’t have oodles of devices being used all the time - if you’re posting on MacRumors you’re in the minority. And there are drawbacks to USB-C (confusion of cable capabilities, flimsier than lightening, etc.) that while aren’t huge deals, don’t make it the huge win switching from 30 pin to Lightening was - a switch that Apple got raked over the coals for. So yes I think Apple was taking it slow, but I absolutely think they would have gotten there soon - Gruber reported many inside Apple were advocating for the change before the EU regulations passed and I’m sure that was growing with wider adoption of USB-C.
And none of this changes the fact that the government shouldn’t be regulating decisions like this in the first place. Because guess what - you’re now never getting a better connector. Vastly higher data transfer speeds that require a different shape? Nope - EU knows better than engineers. Want a device thinner than the USB-C port? Sorry.
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I don‘t.
I want a phone built by innovative companies.
And also software built by innovative companies (hint: that means way more than one).
…and they could have completed that move years ago. Just as they did on their Macs.
And yet, they didn‘t.
👉 It just does not take ten years to move your yearly released phone models to USB-C if you want to.
They did need to do it - if they want to continue selling it as a budget option.
…and about the very last to put it in a high-volume smartphone.
I remain unconvinced. Particularly given how they (as I said already) felt to release new Lightning products through 2022.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they deliberately waited for the legislation to enter into force (minus one year for the iPhone, cause they always want to sell last year‘s model as a second-tier model). That way, they any backlash or negative press about the change, as you correctly point out we had transitioning to Lightning. Instead, they could just point to merely complying with new regulation and that’s that.
It isn’t about data transfer speeds.
And we just got a connector allowing for vastly higher transfer speeds - because of regulation (on the iPhone).
USB-C (in it’s physical shape) will stay for decades to come. Just as USB-A did.
And when there’s need for a better connector, the EU will adapt regulation.
That said, USB-C allowing for 100 watts of charging more than covers what smartphones and the small batteries they include will be able to charge for the foreseeable future. The laws of physics limit (sensible) charging speed.
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Just as long as they don’t innovate on the shape of the charging port, the EU has declared that strengstens verboten.
Just because switching to USB-C a few years ago would have been better for you (and me) does not mean it would have been better for the majority of Apple’s customers. Or that the EU should be take that choice away from literally every company that does business in the EU.
Again, you didn’t get it because of the regulation. You got it a year or two early because of the regulation. But hope you never need any more than what USB-C gives you. Because you’ll be stuck using it for decades.
The fact that they tried to do this for Micro-USB shows what a bad idea regulating the connector is. Just because USB-C is better than Micro-USB doesn’t mean it’s the end state of phone connectors. For all you know if the EU hadn’t decided it knew better than engineers and product designers we all would have been laughing about how ancient and clunky USB-C is and annoyed cheap devices still used it in a decade.
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No, that shouldn't have been allowed. Rule should be same hardware configuration. You make a change for any reason, you have to switch to USB-C.
We'll have to agree to disagree. I'm in favor of the mandate but I don't think companies should be forced to stop manufacturing existing products, that's pushing the change faster than necessary at too high a cost.
Well, most manufacturers of smartphones, laptops, tablets etc adopted USB-C long ago. Apple was actually the only big company that refused to upgrade from their own standard for some products. And the effect was that for many years customers had to buy different cables for iPhones (while having plenty cables the could reuse if the connector was the same). As you said, the only advantage is using one type of cable for most of devices you have and this is actually a big deal. Yes, USB-C is just a connector, there are many standards with the same connector but it's still better than having different connectors for different protocols. I understand your point about the regulations blocking innovation, but the legislation includes provisions that allow for adaptation if significant advancements in charging technology emerge. And for now, USB-C gives a huge buffer for improvements. As you said, phone owners don't care about charging speeds, bandwidth etc. So why should they use two cables instead of one?
They are TCL Flip 3 phones, and are usb-c.
Not only it possible, you can buy them on Amazon right now.
Flip 3
www.tcl.com