A new proposal from the EU might force all mobile manufacturers to use the same charging ports across all new devices.
For the longest time, Apple has set itself apart from most other mobile manufacturers by not having the standard USB-C port on its phones, opting instead to use its proprietary charger, the Lightning connector.
However, a new EU proposal may force Apple to go the way of Android phones, as a new legislative proposal will be presented next month by the European Commission that will require all mobiles to have a standard charging port, as reported by Reuters.
We also saw similar proposals in 2018 and 2020, the latter going through with a vote which overwhelmingly saw the EU pushing for a global charging port, with 582-40 votes in favour of scrapping the Lightning adaptor.
But, for anyone that’s been paying attention to Apple recently, it seems it’s still not switching to USB-C, and there has been no mention of it appearing on the next iPhone.
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There also hasn’t been any official reports that suggest that it would have to be a USB-C charger that becomes the global standard, however, given that almost every mobile phone and laptop use them, including the MacBook and iPad lines, it wouldn’t be an unreasonable compromise.
It’s no surprise that Apple is vehemently against any move away from what it’s used to, with its defence in 2019 being that proposals like this stifle innovation, are bad for the environment and disrupt customers.
We reached out to Apple, and it said the company had nothing to contribute at the moment.
But, as of right now, there doesn’t seem to be any law being confirmed and Apple haven’t been able to write up how it feels on the matter, so only time will tell if the Lightning connector gets to stick around or if we’ll all be going the way of the USB-C.
Trusted Take
I don’t think that changing over to USB-C would cause massive disruption, it wouldn’t take long before everyone was familiar with a new charging port and it would be nice to use one cable for all your devices.
Plus, if every mobile manufacturer switched to USB-C, maybe we could go back to the time where companies actually included a charger with the phone since Apple and Samsung have since stopped that practice.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
