‘One charger to rule them all’ could be a reality quickly as EU proposes mandatory USB-C on devices, like iPhones

The European Union is seeking at creating it mandatory for all smartphone businesses to switch to a frequent USB-C charging port. This involves forcing tech giant Apple to switch its existing lightning port, and consequently, Cupertino is probably to be impacted most due to it, considering that lots of other brands more or significantly less use USB-C ports themselves. The intent of the guidelines is to reduce down the volume of electronic waste, as this would let persons reuse their current chargers and cables even when buying new devices, as an alternative of getting to switch to a new one.

The guidelines are also going to apply to devices like tablets, transportable speakers, headphones, cameras and video game consoles, and makers will require to make quickly charging requirements interoperable. The facts relating to the charging requirements supported by their devices would also require to be shared by the makers to the buyers, as per the proposed guidelines. However, the proposal only covers wired chargers and not the wireless ones. This is for the reason that the EU believes that a lot of innovation is feasible in wireless charging technologies.

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This suggests that only phones and devices supporting wired charging will require to have a USB-C port. Accordingly, if the rumours of Apple’s portless, wireless charging-supporting iPhone are accurate, that device will not require to conform to these guidelines.

In order for these proposed guidelines to grow to be law, the proposal – Radio Equipment Directive – would require to be passed by way of voting in the European Parliament. Once it becomes a law, makers would be provided a timespan of 24 months to conform to these guidelines. As points at present stand, back in early 2020, the European Parliament had voted in favour of new guidelines supporting a frequent charger, and consequently, the proposal now brought out by the EU’s European Commission is probably to be passed by the vote.

The greatest effect is probably to be felt by Apple, as it is the most notable outlier. It never ever adopted a micro USB in its phones and only presented a Micro USB to 30-pin adapter, and now also, it only makes use of a lightning port, even as some of its MacBooks help USB-C.

Following the European Commission’s proposals, Cupertino has issued its disagreement in a statement, stating that imposing such a restriction would stifle innovation and not encourage it. This, it stated, would harm the shoppers in Europe as properly as the rest of the world. It had earlier also disagreed with the proposals and had stated that forcing persons to switch their Lightning accessories to adhere to the typical one would as an alternative build more electronic waste. While this statement might appear like Apple’s vanity of assuming that iOS customers would continue to stick to its newer devices, it does have some credibility to situation the statement. Apple has stopped shipping charging bricks or earbuds with iPhones from last year in a bid to lower e-waste generated from old iPhone customers switching to newer ones.

However, if this proposal is certainly passed and Apple is provided a time of 24 months to switch to USB-C ports, it is more probably that the tech giant would adopt wireless charging for its phones and do away with charging ports altogether, in particular considering that iPhone 11 and later models help wireless charging along with the lightning port.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz