I think they wont. The port will be there at least 5 more years. Youll see.
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EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024
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Well your current devices aren't affected by a future legislation, but in the future there will be USB-C for these typical devices and gadgets.
It was surprising the newly updated Airpod Pros stuck with Lightning port. How many lightening ports does apple have left to sell through anyway?
Android switched to USB-C long ago. As someone who is knee deep in the Apple ecosystem with the exception of an S22U as a phone I refuse to use Lightning anymore.
So... Only two years after the EU regulation goes into affect. Seems like a waste.
If apple chose not to comply with this new law (I'm not saying apple would do this), a huge black market for smuggled iPhones with Lightning ports would develop in Europe.
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No idea why you're so afraid of that. USB-C is just the shape of the connector and thus far USB is pretty good at backwards compatibility. And I'm sure if a better connector comes along the market can talk with the EU to sanction that as the next best thing.
Was Apple concerned with e-waste when they changed the connector of the iPad over to USB-C?
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Products released before the "date of application" will continue to be exempt? Is the date of application the date the EU applied to the commission? Or the date the legislation starts? I hope this doesn't mean we get two more years of iPhone releases with lightning....
For anyone saying this stifles innovation... no, this isn't in force for the rest of time. It will be continually reassessed so that when something better comes along we can all switch to that. It's 100% the right thing to do, and stops the nightmare that has been endless different charging cables during the course of my four decades on Earth.
They won’t. I guarantee iPhone 15 will be Lightning.
Any devices release before the end of 2024 are exempt. Laptops release before spring 2026 are exempt.
Government regulating technology standards is a terrible idea. Nobody is forcing anybody to buy Apple stuff. Yes, I'd prefer USB-C, but government mandates? no way.
Waiting for a standards body to decide on "something better" necessarily stifles innovation. As does taking the profit motive out of developing "something better."
I think the best thing the EU could have done was simply outlaw older USB connectors on new devices. That would have fixed problems without stifling innovation.
It appears to mandate that phones must have a charging port. I hope that appears in the final published legislation.
The other article I read suggested that fair warning is given from date of publication- eg next month. That gives companies two years to sort their **** out. Products are only exempt if they are released before publication next month.
Nope. It only applies to devices "that are rechargeable via a wired cable".
That's silly. Products can't be redesigned in a month. Like I said, it only applies to products released after the end of 2024.
The Directive will only affect devices released going forward, so won't do anything about your current cables. And everything is already moving in this direction—even disposable vapes now have USB-C.
So outlaw all existing ports except USB C? I'd have been fine with that. However, problems may occur if new cheap proprietary ports started popping up on cheap stuff coming from Asia, thus undermining the intentions of the law. There isn't a perfect solution.
Why is that silly? They get to sell their stuff for two and a bit years before a minor redesign is required... which company couldn't do that?
Edit: Plus every company has known this was moment was coming for the past half decade.
Not quite, I suggested outlawing all existing USB ports except USB-C on new devices. I think it's unlikely a non-USB port out of Asia would find a significant foothold in the EU. It would require massive support from third parties that you aren't going to get around cheap, inferior products.
Did they change the legislation? The last one I read implied phones marketed before the deadline did not need to be USB-; only those introduced afterward.
Since teh standard only requires PD to be in teh cable, Apple or any other manufacturer, can still have a custom cable for advanced features that a simple USB-C cable will not support.
Of course it can only affect stuff that isn’t yet produced. The fact that the industry is generally moving into that space is also because it has been well known that the EU as well as consumers will want to move to that direction anyway, be best to be prepared for where the ball is going. The fact that Apple couldn’t yet be bothered to join that momentum with their iPhones while simultaneously having all other devices like Macs and iPads go USBC does show that their intentions were on rolling with their proprietary solutions as long as possible and milking that MFI Lightning ecosystem as much as possible.
Not necessarily. Nothing I saw said they cannot extend their tech as long as it also can use a standard wireless charging capability. So you could have standard + MagSafe implementations.
This is literally going to create mountains of electronic waste overnight. Apple sells iPhones in the tens of millions upon release, and almost every one of those buyers will have multiple lightning cables. Metric tons of e-waste, and for what? The EU to flex its muscles?
This is a huge miss for the continent and the planet. There are massive amounts of money behind this.