The European Union is Forcing Apple to Change their Charging Ports by 2024
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Apple Inc. is being mandated by the European Union to change the lighting port charger connectors on their iPhones to the USB-C type, by Dec. 28, 2024. This USB-C charging port is already used by Android, in addition to Apple’s laptops and their iPads.
On Oct. 4 last year, the EU parliament voted on new legislation to use one universal charger, the USB-C, for all small and medium-sized devices, such as phones, cameras, game consoles, smartwatches, and other implements.
"We all have at least three mobile phone chargers at home. Looking for the right charger, either at home or at work, can be quite annoying," said Minister for Industry and Trade Jozef Sikela. "On top of this, these chargers amount to 11,000 tonnes of e-waste every year. Having a charger that fits multiple devices will save money and time and also helps us reduce electronic waste."
And other countries may soon follow in the EU’s footsteps. For example, India is currently planning to make the USB-C their universal smartphone charger. As Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh told the Press Trust of India, “In the last meeting, a broad consensus had emerged among stakeholders on the adoption of USB Type-C as a charging port for, smartphones, tablets, laptops etc.”
India has the current largest population in the world, over a billion people, and a loss of their electronic sales could be significant, even to a large company such as Apple.
The Canadian Government currently does not have any plans to input a universal charger standard in Canada. In an article by the Toronto Star, Tim Silk, an associate professor of marketing at the University of British Columbia, said that he does not believe Canada is a big enough country to have any impact on tech companies. If it was just Canada opting for a universal charger, big tech companies would simply cut their losses and take their business elsewhere.
Yet, if the United States took the reins of the effort, or the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement came together to put down regulations on the USB-C type charger, then Silk claimed it could be successful.
An article in Bloomberg claimed that Apple was originally angry at the USB-C charger proposal from the EU; worried that it would be worse for their customers, environmentally, and would reduce innovation. Yet, in May, even before the EU had provisionally passed the USB-C law in June 2022, Apple was already testing out USB-C type chargers for their iPhones, Bloomberg reports.
Finally, on Oct. 26, 2022, Greg Joswiak, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Apple Inc, joined a Wall Street Journal Tech Live to discuss the new EU regulations. When asked if Apple was switching to USB-C chargers, he admitted that, “Obviously we’ll have to comply.”
Apple’s early anger at the EU’s plans does not come as a surprise for many, as losing the lighting port means losing money from their usual lighting port cable sales and accessories. In addition, Apple’s MFi program, or Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod, which consists of a broad range of accessories both wireless and wired, will need to be remodeled to fit the new EU laws.
Ming Chi-Kuo, an exceptionally reliable Apple analyst according to Apple Insider, tweeted on May 11, 2022, that “My latest survey indicates that 2H23 new iPhone will abandon Lightning port and switch to USB-C port.” The 2H23 iPhone is another way to refer to the iPhone 15, which will be released in September 2023.