Finally, the European Union (EU) has passed legislation requiring the use of the charger and USB-C cable for any portable device, such as smartphones, headphones, earphones, tablets, laptops, e-readers, cameras, game consoles and much more. month.
It is a major blow to Apple, which has said it would harm innovation and create a mountain of e-waste. But Apple already uses standard USB chargers, and it’s just the cable that uses the USB-A / USB-C ultracar connector in Lightning.
The EU is also looking to standardize different wireless inductive charging systems. The Qi standard is likely to be adopted. Once again, Apple is the odd one who insists on using its MagSafe technology that sees its 15W charging pad cost A $ 65 plus a charger instead of a Qi from about $ 15. It will also affect Apple Watch and Samsung Watch, which use proprietary wireless charging systems.
Why will a charger and USB-C cable be mandatory in the EU?
The EU estimates that in its member countries alone, it will save around $ 372 million a year by being able to use a standard charging system and stop the tones of charges being introduced into the waste stream. He also believes that Apple and others are benefiting from imposing licensed systems (Apple MFi certification adds to the cost).
In any case, Apple (and now Samsung and others) has stopped providing a charger with the phone and are earning a considerable additional revenue with “Apple and third party authorized” chargers.
Will Apple switch to USB-C for this?
No technical reason: Lightning does less than USB-C. I could still use Lightning outside the EU, but that doesn’t make sense. It has threatened to eliminate the port altogether and rely solely on MagSafe, but the EU has it covered as well.
The lighting is owned by Apple and is less than USB-C 3.1
Why is it the best movement in the world?
Apple supplies about 14% of the global smartphone market. The rest, Android, used USB-C and some use micro-USB. You can see why the EU chose to standardize a USB-C charger and cable.
But technically, USB-C has power delivery (PD) standards (read USB and easy Thunderbolt cables (guide)) and the world is using USB-C to switch to USB 4.0 as a subset of Thunderbolt 4. In essence, it means that any USB-C device must be compatible with a smart PD so that you can charge any device with any charger.
It is also moving to increase the power capacity of the cable. For example, cheap cables support 1A, better cables 2A or 3A. Since voltages can range from 3 to 20 V, its top ceiling is now 20 V / 5 A / 100 W, but this requires a proper 5 W cable and PD intelligence. We will soon start seeing higher voltages of up to 48V / 5W / 240W.
PD guarantees that the device only receives the charge it needs and has guarantees against overload, overheating, etc.