This week, EU lawmakers agreed on new proposals to force manufacturers from everything from smartphones and headphones to digital cameras and tablets to use the same universal charging port: USB type C. The plan is that the new rules come into force in the fall of 2024, after which these devices that are charged with a wired cable will have to do so via an integrated USB-C port.
The biggest impact of this legislation is likely to be on Apple’s iPhone. While the rest of the smartphone industry has gradually converged around USB-C as a single, standardized cable charging port, Apple has firmly stuck with Lightning, the proprietary connector it introduced with the iPhone 5 in 2012. EU law could finally force this to move forward.
Apple is the only major smartphone maker that has not adopted USB-C
EU rules are only a temporary agreement at the moment and will have to be approved by both the European Council and the European Parliament before they can be made official. This is expected to happen after the summer holidays, which end on September 1st. It will go into effect 20 days later, and most manufacturers will have 24 months to meet, which is where the fall date of fall 2024 comes from. The exception is laptops because the type of USB-C chargers The high power required by these devices is less common than phone chargers. Instead, they will be 40 months old, which brings us to about the beginning of 2026.
If Apple wants the iPhone to have a physical charging port after the fall of 2024, then the EU wants USB-C to be its only option. It can’t just offer an external dongle like it did a decade ago. The most recent public drafts of the proposed legislation specify that the USB Type C connector used for charging must remain “accessible and operational at all times”, meaning that a detachable dongle is unlikely to cut it. This is because EU standards are designed to reduce e-waste, with a universal charging standard that will hopefully mean that more chargers can be reused instead of ending up in landfills. The EU estimates that the rules could reduce 11,000 metric tons (more than 12,000 tonnes) of e-waste annually and save customers € 250 million (about $ 268 million) in “unnecessary charger purchases”.
We have an agreement on the common charger!
This means more savings for EU consumers and less waste for the planet:
mobile phones, tablets, cameras … all will use Charmonised fast charging technology of USB type disaggregation of charger sales #SingleMarket #DigitalEU pic.twitter.com/qw2cJV4RY0
– European Commission (@EU_Commission) June 7, 2022
The new flagship iPhones are usually announced in September each year, which means that Apple’s 2024 range of iPhones (probably called the iPhone 16) will be launched just when the legislation goes into effect. But the rules dictate that “there should be no products on the market that do not comply with the directive”, says Desislava Dimitrova, a spokeswoman for the European Parliament. This means that Apple may want to make the changes sooner, as it should modify or remove older models. Apple typically continues to sell older models for several years at a lower price.
There are already reports that the iPhone maker could make the switch next year. Last month, reputable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple could be ready to make the switch as early as 2023. Days later, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg corroborated that report and said Apple was already testing iPhones. equipped with connector. If accurate, these reports suggest that we could see an iPhone equipped with a USB-C port a year before the new EU rules come into force.
Of course, the EU cannot force Apple to make the change worldwide. But any iPhone sold in the single market of the European Union should comply with these rules. During its 2021 fiscal year, nearly a quarter of Apple’s net sales came from Europe, and the iPhone was its best-selling product worldwide. The market is simply too lucrative for Apple to abandon such legislation. Apple could make USB-C iPhones and ship them exclusively to the EU, but given Apple’s emphasis on supply chain efficiency that makes it sell a small selection of very similar devices around the world (with only a couple of special models as an exception), this approach seems unlikely.
An Apple spokesman declined to answer questions about how the company intends to comply with future legislation.
The rules do not address wireless charging, at this time
There’s at least one way Apple could avoid having to send USB-C ports to their phones, and that’s thanks to wireless charging. Current EU legislation only applies to cable charging, so if a phone is only charged wirelessly, it could completely circumvent EU charging harmonization rules.
It’s a theoretical distinction given that portless phones don’t really exist outside the realm of a couple of concept phones and advertising stunts. But it is significant given the rumors that Apple has planned to follow this path with the iPhone. These rumors have been circulating since Apple introduced the MagSafe wireless charging standard with the iPhone 12 line. what Apple seems relatively uninterested in creating a MagSafe accessory ecosystem.
Apple has resisted EU attempts to standardize USB-C. In comments to the European Commission last year, the company argued that the regulation could slow down “the introduction of beneficial innovations in charging standards, including those related to energy safety and efficiency”. He also said the new rules could increase e-waste in the short term “by causing the removal of existing cables and accessories”. It has a point. With around 1 billion iPhones in use worldwide by early 2021, this is a huge amount of charging hardware that will become redundant over time. And all these customers will need new USB-C accessories to replace them.
Apple’s iPhone 5 (pictured) was its first device with a Lightning port. Image: The Verge
As my former colleague Chaim Gartenberg wrote last year, Apple’s concerns could have as much to do with Apple’s results as with e-waste or innovation. Because Lightning is a proprietary connector, any accessory manufacturer who wants to support it must go through Apple’s MFi program, which allows Apple to get a cut in the lucrative iPhone accessory market.
The irony is that despite its opposition to putting a USB-C port in its phones, Apple has been one of the top USB-C champions in other device categories. As for the laptops in its business, the company started using USB-C in 2015 when it launched a MacBook with only one USB-C port along with a headphone jack. In any case, Apple adopted USB-C too quickly, forcing the much-mocked “dongle life” to users around the world. Apple has also brought USB-C to a growing number of its iPads, such as the iPad Pro and, more recently, the iPad Air.
(As a side note: While EU-covered devices should be able to charge via USB-C, they should not be used as the only form of charging. This means that MacBook are loaded using MagSafe, the laptop version). that is, they are still free to do so, as long as their USB-C ports can also charge them. And that’s the case with Apple’s latest MacBook.)
Apple’s headphones, wireless mice, and keyboards are also affected by the proposals
If the legislation comes into force in its current form, it will not be just the iPhone that Apple will have to switch from Lightning to USB-C in the EU. According to a European Council press release, headphones, earphones, wireless mice and wireless keyboards should use USB-C for cable charging. This would cover the AirPods Max, AirPods, Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard, which currently use Lightning.
In addition to urging smartphone manufacturers to use the physical USB-C port, the EU also intends to standardize fast charging on all phones, where Apple is starting to lag behind its competitors based on Android. The iPhone 13 Pro Max recorded loads below 30 W, while Samsung’s Galaxy S22 compatible USB PD devices can extend up to 45 W. The EU also expects to normalize wireless charging in the future.
New EU legislation is still far from becoming law. It needs to be finalized at the technical level and voted on by both the European Parliament and the European Council. But between this and the Digital Markets Act, which includes requiring iMessage to interact with other smaller messaging platforms and requiring Apple to allow third-party app stores on the iPhone, the organization is forcing major changes. to Apple. And the iPhone maker will have no choice but to play ball if it wants to continue to benefit from one of its largest markets.