The European Union (EU) has set an official deadline requiring all smartphones sold in the region to have a USB-C port, including iPhones.
According to The Guardian , in a newly published directive, the EU says all smartphones must have USB-C by December 28, 2024. Other consumer products, such as tablets and wearables, will also be required to switch to USB-C under the new law. Products that rely solely on wireless charging without ports will not be required to include USB-C.
Since the Common Charging Standards Bill was officially passed by the EU, Apple’s Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak confirmed the company would have no choice but to comply with the new EU law. At the time, this Apple leader did not say when the company would switch to USB-C and remove Lightning, but with a deadline of December 28, 2024, Apple can completely wait until the iPhone 16 launches in September. 9.2024 just started moving to the new charging port.
Even so, the company seems to be doing it sooner when it starts to switch to USB-C on the iPhone 15, which was released in September 2023. This comes despite the company saying that “strict regulation requiring only one type of connector will stifle innovation rather than encourage them, and this will harm European and global consumers ”. world ”. The company believes that replacing a large number of old cables will lead to a spike in e-waste, despite the regulation’s stated goal of helping to reduce the amount of wasted electronic equipment. and affect the environment.
Even accepting this, Joswiak argued that “it would be better for the environment and better for Apple’s customers without such regulation from the government”. He also said: “Europeans are the ones deciding the time for European customers” when asked about when Apple implemented USB-C on iPhone when.
It is known that Apple has moved most of its product line to USB-C, with the promise of up to 240W of power and data transfer of up to 40 Gbps over the same cable. The first Apple laptop to use USB-C for charging was the 12-inch MacBook when it launched in 2015, while the iPad also started switching from Lightning to USB-C in 2018.
