Submitted by The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, has announced plans to force smartphone and other electronics manufacturers to fit a common USB-C charging port on their devices. The proposal is likely to have the biggest impact on Apple, which continues to use its proprietary Lightning connector rather than the USB-C connector adopted by most of its competitors. The rules are intended to cut down on electronic waste by allowing people to re-use existing chargers and cables when they buy new electronics.
In addition to phones, the rules will apply to other devices like tablets, headphones, portable speakers, videogame consoles, and cameras. Manufacturers will also be forced to make their fast-charging standards interoperable, and to provide information to customers about what charging standards their device supports. Under the proposal, customers will be able to buy new devices without an included charger.
It was the European Union that spearheaded the change from one-charger-per-device to standardising on Micro-USB, which was followed by USB-C later on. There’s a lot of pro-Apple, anti-government, right-wing talking points going around the internet today, especially coming from the United States, but unlike what they want you to believe, laws like this do not stop or even hinder innovation or the arrival of newer charging ports or standards. New charging standards can be rolled into USB-C, and the law can be changed for newer ports if the industry asks for it and there is sufficient consensus.
Nobody liked the situation we had where every single device had its own incompatible charger. In fact, I have countless Palm OS devices I have a hard time charging because I lost some of their chargers over time. It was an infuriating time, and it’s thanks to EU pressure that the situation has improved as much as it has. However, due to Apple’s reluctance to play ball, the EU now has to step in and regulate – had Apple been a good citizen and adopted USB-C like everyone else, we probably wouldn’t have needed this law.
Too bad for Apple. They most likely won’t be able to buy their way out of this one, and we don’t have historically black colleges Apple can take back promised funding from, either.
> There’s a lot of pro-Apple, anti-government, right-wing talking points going around the internet today,
“Instead listen to our pro-government, anti-apple, left-wing talking points…”
I’ll weigh the evidence and make up my own mind. No need to tell us how to think, thanks.
As if. Don’t you know this is tech media, and thinking for yourself is prohibited? Lol. Joking aside, I agree with you here. I do wish people would stop moralizing and telling others what to think. Then again, we humans have been doing this for several thousand years, so why stop now, right?
It’s about time. This is one of many changes we need to cut back on pollution and e-waste. Left to their vices, corporations will always act in their own selfish interests, to hell with sustainability and the planet. They don’t care as long as they get bigger profits while someone else will have to deal with and pay for the long term damages. We really need to ramp up our efforts to eliminate waste even if the corporations go kicking and screaming (and you can be they will).
Alfman,
I can get on with it this time. I think forcing microUSB was premature, but type-C has now reached a good point.
That being said mandating “other devices like tablets, headphones, portable speakers, videogame consoles, and cameras…” is wasteful. 12V barrel connectors work fine for many electronics, especially if data is never a concern. They are cheap, reliable, and ubiquitous. And at higher wattage (like speakers), using type-C will open up new nightmares.
It could have easily been: type-C for smart devices, or one of these two barrel connectors for 12V or 5V.
(And I ran into 12V on the type-C connector. That was one of the worst abominations, connect your phone by mistake, and it will be fried).
sukru,
microUSB was just awful IMHO, a standard that should never have existed. Yes it was smaller than previous connectors, but it was too delicate and prone to failure. Not to mention too much trial and error plugging it in. USB-c is a much better standard.
Yeah that makes sense. Although I’d like to see standards for those as well.
It’s like the legacy alkaline battery form factors “AAA,AA,C,D” were really great for standardization. I can go to grocery store or convenience store and pick up these standard batteries with no fuss at all. Perfect. But if I need batteries for my camera that all goes out the window and I need to special order it. Even Walmart and Best Buy with their electronics sections tend not to have the batteries for cameras they don’t stock. Every time we buy a new camera, all the accessories and batteries from the old camera became useless even though they did the exact same thing. As a consumer I really miss having electronics all share the same battery standards. Obviously the old battery standards are obsolete for modern electronics, but they should have come up with new interoperability standards rather than flooding the market with thousands of incompatible proprietary solutions.
Same deal with car batteries. So many of them are different in some meaningless way that prevents you from installing them, even if their chemically and capacity is identical. I replaced a dead battery for my mother in law and the replacement cost her $160 or so. Another battery with the *exact* same dimensions and equal specs was available for $70 and we tried it but some stupid piece of plastic was engineered to block it from bolting in properly. Personally I would have filed off the offending BS part, but it wasn’t mine.
This is just dumb and we should have better standards across manufacturers to reduce consumer costs and improve reuse, but alas that’s the opposite of what manufacturers want.
Alfman,
I agree. Batteries are another sore point.
There is/was a standard for lithium camera batteries. I still have those CR123A cells in the alarm sensors and flashlights. There is now also a rechargeable (non-standard) version in Arlo security cameras (I think, I don’t have those). But they have been dropped from use by almost all digital camera manufacturers.
To be fair, modern camera batteries have 2x-3x capacity in a similar volume (but different shape). And without customer demand, I don’t think they have any incentive to leave a lucrative accessory business.
Quote: “using type-C will open up new nightmares.”
Like…? Oh, right, no example because there’s NONE. I use the same cable AND charger to charge my fanless laptop, my mobile phone, my portable MP4 player and my haircutter… since years.
And know what? I DIDN’T HAVE TO PAY ROYALTIES NOR BUY A LOCKED CONNECTOR TO EACH COMPANY.
WEll the it will charge but how fast is still there.
As is the charging only cable bullshit.
A bit of licensing could stop both of those and not add much.
(well probably not china who would just declare they invented it in 1266).
franzrogar,
Okay, maybe I dramatized a bit. However for high power charge only application type-C is really an overhead. At least currently.
USB-PD has recently upgraded to 100W support, which is still less than the requirement of some speakers, and many desktop replacement laptops. For instance, I have a Dell dock, and uses a proprietary protocol to pass 130W to my laptop, even though the connector is type-C.
So, like the microUSB chargers with their incompatible protocols, we see a repeat here. To be fair USB-IF is working on it.
And they are more expensive. At 100W, a PD charger is roughly $40, a similar 12V 10A barrel adapter is $20. That is an unnecessary cost, especially when data capability is not used.
I think Type-C is great except for 2 things: I worry the Thunderbolt addition to the spec. creating a DMA security hole and I would like Type-C connectors to have magnets or some ridge be part of the standard so it stays connected easier:
https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Charging-CAFELE-Braided-Compatible/dp/B08BLJ62J8
I actually think having all these devices use the same connector will help with innovation like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae-G2QtuSJg&t=2m48s
Their is actually a standard for that these days called: displaylink
I really don’t know why my Android phone should not be able to run a Linux desktop in a Linux container when I connect a docking station. Possibly with the option to install Steam client, etc.
I guess this means no integrated magnetically-attached power connectors (think Macbook’s magsafe), ever. No manufacturer is going to put a magsafe-like port and a USB-C port on the same smartphone.
Note: Please don’t recommend any USB-C to magnetic adapters. I clearly said “integrated”. No bump that makes taking out the case or even adding a case impossible.
Good, magnets cause issue for many people with devices such as pacemaker/icd.
Unable to cook on holiday (induction hob).
Less use of magnets the better.
ANd for the efforty it saves copared to usb C.? Well get a grip.
God it is so satisfying to see Gruber throwing a tantrum!
I’m not sure why the author is trying to loop video game consoles into it. The USB-C standard max is 100 watts, meanwhile PS5 takes 350 watts. It’s the same problem with every user comment section on gaming laptops. Anything with a dgpu gets a comment about how they want USB-C Charging, but don’t recognize the fact the hardware needs more watts than the standard provides.
For phones and tablets this is fine, but I’ve seen quite a few macbook repair videos where the thunderbolt charging chips were the main point of failure on some $1000+ equipment. In those cases I’d rather the entirety of the power supply section be separated from the motherboard for easy replacement.
The proposal includes handheld gaming consoles. Note that the EU examples are for chargers whose maximum power is as little as 25 watts. There also could be multiple fast charge protocols so the consumer may still need multiple chargers but all would have the same connector.
I really do not see any benefit of this (attempt of an) regulation. In our family we have a multitude of devices. We just bought a set of cables which can be switched from USB-C to micro-USB to Lightning. And all plug into the same charger directly build into the wall socket.
I’d rather like to see micro-USB vanish in favor of USB-C.
DeepThought,
Personally I’d rather all mobile devices have the same fitting than having cables with multiple fishtail connectors.
Is that not going to be the case?
I use both connectors and frankly speaking lightning is far more robust than USB-C. Lightning is designed as a connector for portable devices and the receptacle in the device is very robust. USB-C receptacles on portable devices are more flaky and prone to failure,
I was happy Apply used Lightning during the time of micro USB as micro USB is a *terrible* connector.
But USB-C is pretty damn good. So good in fact, Apple uses it on many products!
Even if you’re on an only-Apple lifestyle, chances are they have some kind of USB-C based product you use so you have to bring two chargers. Wouldn’t you prefer to only need one, and be able to use Android friends chargers?
I know Apple itself is using USB-C in all its laptop’s (i have one) and i agree that apple usb-c receptacle are pretty solid. It surely is a capable connector (bandwidth is impressive) but the lightning plug feels anyway sturdier to me.
Beside, i already have a full set of lightning cables that would become e-waste the moment i buy a new iPhone, which is somehow ironic to me. Transitioning to a standardized connector is a good thing, but lightning has been around for almost a decade (since iPhone 5) and creating tons of e-waste for the sake of “minimizing e-waste” is a contradiction in his own term.
enryfox,
On the other hand the old thunderbolt cables can still be used until a product’s EOL when they would have gotten replaced with a new product anyways. So it’s not really worse in that regards.
If the law is written to mandate that consumers can’t be forced to buy new accessories they already have, then you may never have to buy new cables for either usb-c or thunderbolt because you already have enough. That’s the whole point.
Is this a joke? It’s a poor design that makes it extremely easy for dust and small pieces of hair to get wedged in the contacts and short circuit. I don’t hear of the charging port going bad on Android phones much, but it seems to happen a lot with lightening as there’s no sheath to keep the debris out.
As an Apple user, my message to other Apple users is this: you can disagree with Apple and still like their products!
It’s just so bizzarre that so many feel the need to agree with literally anything Apple does. It’s baffling to me.
I’ll just say this: be careful what you wish for. Imposing a standard that is a product of its time can inhibit the development of better technologies later, especially when the USB C move is already well on the way forward without such imposition. Who’s holding out at this point other than, ironically, Apple themselves?
I think it’s a good regulation in general. USB-C is simply a good option in general.
Like many regulations, I hope the details are appropriate and there’s a ‘reasonable’ exemption process. It’s going to be tricky to legislate, but I hope this catches the silly cases where companies use a different technology just to keep proprietary connections or to save marginal costs or just maintain legacy designs. Just recently I bought a noise cancelling sleep earphones… and they came with a charge case with microUSB. Annoying. The next version of course uses USB-C.
Which brings up the point that most products are already standardizing to USB-C just because that’s what the industry is going towards.
What I hope it doesn’t do is stop companies from genuinely pursuing better technology. I hope there is a process by which a company like Apple can go and say, here is our new connector. It’s 5x faster, waterproof, is 10x stronger, 1/2 as large… and they really should have no problem being able to argue is ‘sufficiently’ superior that they can use it in a timely manner.
In general I support this kind of law. It all obviously depends on the regulators. Can they stay on top of technology? Can they provide a reasonable and timely exemption process? Those are all questions to be answered.
I keep seeing whining about how moves like this inhibit innovation. What I don’t see are solid examples providing evidence of this. And before someone foolishly claims there’s no proof because the innovation was `inhibited` from happening — ….NO. Companies do not abandon innovation because of standards. Standards and needs change over time. People are not stuck with any standard for all eternity. Somebody is going to cash in on whatever eventually replaces USB-C and you can bet there’s no shortage of people trying to be ahead of it.
I fully believe that Apple wants this law to be passed. It allows them to switch ports on the iPhone with out having consumers complain that they switched the port and all of their chargers no longer work. It is very wasteful to switch ports, Apple knows this. But they want it. The have been slowly doing it to not offend consumers. Now they have the ability to do it with out it being their fault.
The funny thing on this is I bet apple were already goping to change to usb c opn thier phones and will try not to now.
Still 25% of the market. Hopefully 0 soon. Hopefully Microsoft can replace them.
“This is a profoundly stupid way to approach product design and standardisation. What happens in 5 years when someone wants to use a better connector? What if they’d picked USB 3 five years ago?”
Benedict Evans
It’s an anti-consumer action dressed up as consumer protection. Suppose you want to buy an iPhone with a Lightening connector – why should you be banned from doing so. Crazy
There are things more important that `your` want to buy an iPhone with a Lightening connector. People have a bigger responsibility, it’s not just all about `you`. Anyone who argues against taking measures to reduce waste & pollution, even at the expense of personal want or convenience, needs a firm slap across both sides of their face.
Sanctimonious claptrap. The idea that freezing and making mandatory a transitory connector standard is going to make the slightest different to the planet is ludicrous and child like.
I thought the excellent https://www.eurointelligence.com put it best:
“EU tries to ban lightning. Good luck.
We read in Suddeutsche Zeitung first that the Commission is now ready to impose a unified charger on all electronic devices, including of course mobile telephones. This is consistent with the EU’s attempt to seek global power through regulation, even in industries Europe has long abandoned. The thinking is that 500m of the worlds wealthiest consumers clearly have some muscle to counter high tech oligopolies. Or do they really?
We have been critical of the EU’s attempt to become the global super-regulator in industries in which EU companies are at best peripheral actors. In the past, product regulation was never primarily done for the consumer, but to provide a level-playing for producers, within reason. Since today’s high-tech producers are mostly American and Asian, strategy has shifted. In the case of the now mandated USB-C charger cable, it has probably met its nemesis.
The Commission said the idea is to reduce electronic waste. It had given the industry time to come up with the solution for the electronic charger problem, but to no avail. Apple uses the lightning charger for its phones, while most Asian manufacturers of Android phones use USB-C. As users of too many electronics gadgets ourselves, we, too, would welcome a reduction in the variety of charger cables. But our experience has been that the main problem is the reliability and longevity of USB-C cables, whose lifespan compares unfavourably with fresh dairy products.
In any case, we agree with Apple, unusually for us, that this directive would stifle innovation. There have been several USB standards over the years. No standard has ever been final. A next-generation product might require a technology that does not currently exist, and that may not be deliverable in the confines of the USB-C socket. What will happen is that the European consumer could end up with dumbed-down product versions or, more likely, resort to the unregulated grey market.”
Luckily iPhone connector ports will be going away soon, there’s only going to be a few more generations with physical ports and by the time this ridiculous legislation worms it’s way through the Byzantine EU system (ETA 2024 if it ever actually materialises) it will probably be moot. If not people can always order iPhones with Lightening ports from the UK
What’s ludicrous and child-like is the idea that standards stifle innovation and that small things don’t add up. You can fill a lake with a dripping faucet. Keeping one charger out of a landfill may not make any noticeable difference but what about millions or hundreds of millions? For nearly the last decade there’s been well over a billion phones sold each year. If you think a small change can have a huge real world impact, you’re a fool, period.
And, standards are temporary, not lasting for all eternity, which you concede. You claim standards stifle innovation, then immediately follow it with pointing out the fact that there’s been “several USB standards over the years”. You prove your own theory wrong, no help needed. IDE didn’t stifle EIDE which didn’t stifle SATA 1/2/3, which didn’t stifle NVME. VGA didn’t stifle DVI which didn’t stifle HDMI, which didn’t stifle Display Port.
USB-C will not trigger the end times and it will not prevent its successor from being imagined, developed, and deployed.
> pro-Apple, anti-government, right-wing talking points
Apple, the device of choice for proud Conservatives and Fascists? I don’t know.
What is the recommendation for anti-Apple, anti-government, right-wingers?
The linked article makes it clear that the industry went from 30 charging “standards” to 3 in the last 10 years or so, i.e. this was already happening, with 1 of the 3 standards being microUSB, which is essentially on its way out. So, without compulsion, this has largely already happened anyway. If there is a “mountain of e-waste”, it most likely is because people keep buying USB cables rather than because phone manufacturers are using multiple incompatible standards.
Heck, Apple’s cables are so expensive that Apple users are encouraged to keep hold of their cables anyway.
And the document apparently estimates that the measures would save EUR250m a year, which is about 50c for each person in the EU, so not really much. And assuming each USB-C cable weighs about 20g (which is the weight of my lightning cable) and costs EUR5, then we are talking about a “saving” of about 50m charger cables (at most) which are equivalent to 50 containers worth of cables (assuming no packaging).
And if you look at the proposals, it is clear that the biggest thing envisaged is that phones no longer be supplier with the wall charging unit i.e. the saving due to using USB-C itself is even smaller than that.
In short, this is a non-problem that is being used to bloody Apple’s nose.
I disagree. Standards and environment and other modern things of concern are concrete real issues. I honestly couldn’t care less about Apple and the issues would exist whether Apple existed or not. Standards and the environment are done to death and I am beyond fed up reading opinions by people who have been too lazy to keep up with these discussions and lazily parrot right wing libertarian talking points.
You can also add supply chains and forced obsolecence as closely coupled issues so you can see that the microscopically tiny point of view you have circumscribed by your own autobiographical experience is the tip of a very large iceberg. For every component produced you may have hundreds of designers, machine tools, chemical processes, warehousing, transport companies, drilling companies, millions of tonnes of rock blasted out of the ground. It all adds up. That’s just for one thing. Multiply a wasteful ethos by the number of other artifacts and the number begin to soar. That’s where your atmospheric carbon and nitrates and other pollutants come from in big enough quantiity to shift the ecosystem of a planet or throw local economic systems on their head or displace hundreds of thousands of people. Then you add the material and other costs of remedying this so multiply by ten. All this because you thought it was “just one cable”.
I wouldn’t be surpised if there are PhD’s and logistics and a whole host of experts working in this field and this may be something Thom might pick up on to fold in extra and different content in the future.
What forced obsolescence? Apple has been using the same cables now for longer than USB-C has been around. So Apple customers, of whom there are many, have been able to use the same connectors now without issue and without Apple making anything obsolete. If anything, this regulation is forcing Apple to make their connector obsolete while it was still good enough for Apple.
This idea that this contributes mountains to CO2 is also absurd. And no, no millions of tonnes of rock was displaced to create the equivalent of 1000 tonnes of cables. And hundreds of designers? If not needed to create lightning cables, were they going to somehow not going to be alive and therefore not have emissions?
Small things have small impacts. Heck, if the EU was really serious about reducing waste and emissions, then banning cars with displacements above 2l would save far more.
Most iPhone buyers are repeat customers, and ergo, they would reuse their cables and chargers. (Keeping in mind that the regulation doesn’t actually force the manufacturers to stop supplying new cables (or to sell them separately). The idea that people find themselves with many incompatible cables is clearly false. If you find yourself with one lightning cable and one USB-C cable, then clearly you can charge any high end phone out these days (am discounting microUSB here). This regulation is all about “signalling”, and is convenient because it attacks Apple, an American company.
In any case, Apple has been gradually phasing in USB-C anyway for a lot of their products, even where I think they had better solutions (e.g. the old MagSafe laptop chargers, which were brilliant).
And lastly, the idea that anyone who disagrees with you is just lazily parroting right wing (or left wing or whatever else) is just ridiculous.