I find it terribly amusing that e-waste is one of their arguments. Every Apple device I buy requires a new set of cables. I replace my hardware every the years... Almost as if creating waste wasn't really a problem for them as long as they were profiting.
EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
431–440 of 525 posts
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#432Earlier quoted context omitted.
And iPhone sales a drop in the bucket compared to Android phone sales. And they all have USB-C.
Well as far as “all Android phones have USB-C”, a quick Google search for Android phones on Amazon brings me to this link: https://www.amazon.com/Honor-Unlocked-Smartphone-Dual-Lens-E... “Whats in the box:phone, power/wall charger, Micro USB cable and sim ejection tool.”
So, you found a phone released in 2017. From Huawei. Super cheap. That isn't even sold in the US. Where all the reviews read:
"Honor 7X has the distinction of being one of the last phones to feature a micro USB port for charging instead of USB-C. Blame the price if you must..."
Well done.
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#433I guess Apple has sold one too many $3 cables for $29.95 in the iStore ...
I see companies like Motorola, LG, Kyocera, and Nintendo as more abusive. Sell a few tens of millions of devices ,(not 100M a year) and still, use a custom proprietary charging cable and transformer, soldered together in 1 piece so it hits the dumpster in 1-2Y when the cable frays!
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#434Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha, I've been around when tech-illiterate regulators from the EU weren't around to stymie innovation in the oh-so important field of power connectors. In fact, I still have a box full of wall-warts from at least 5 phone manufacturers, and not one would fit on a different maker's phone. In fact, for some producers, the power plugs were even different for different models. Yeah, I so miss those days.
I have the same box, with wall warts from my first cellphone in about 1998 until today. Now tell me, how many of those wall warts are from Apple and don’t have a USB-Port or a fixed cable? Exactly 0. Now tell me how many of the other manufacturer’s power adaptors have either a fixed cable or a non-USB port? All wall warts that came with any Apple Phone or iPad I ever used are still usable because they are USB.
>All wall warts that came with any Apple Phone or iPad I ever used are still usable because they are USB.
Which is totally not a coincidence because back then, the EU was pondering forcing a common standard down producer's side.
I still have a Apple FireWire-wall wart from my old iPod, though. Again not a coincidence. It resides in the box with all the fondly-remembered Nokia- and Siemens plugs from the same time.
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't have to accept that, and if you waste half an hour unchecking boxes that site is doing malicious compliance. In my experience it's three clicks or so to turn off data gathering. I could not be happier with the GDPR.
Some sites make you turn off every ad partner individually! And it’s not individual sites going rogue. It’s clearly a box from an ad network. Not sure how you haven’t come across these.
I'd say more that the majority I've seen have been proper, and the nonproper ones I've just not looked at and backed out. Not like I'm starved for reading choice.
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#436Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's quite well documented that manufacturers have to pay Apple to use lightning connectors, under the MFi scheme. While Apple doesn't issue a price sheet publicly it's been widely reported [1] as $4 per lightning connector - and that in the past it's been as much as $10 per device. $4 per cable in licensing fees for every single cable sold sounds pretty nice to me. I can understand Apple wanting to keep that. [1] ht…
Having to pay Apple does not mean that Apple wishes to use proprietary cables in its devices in order to make money from third parties. Apple has several products/services which one could reasonably assume operate at break even or negative margin (e.g. Apple Developer accounts). To illustrate (accept you may be too busy to do the research, but I'm trying to show you why a company which does $250bn a year in revenue d…
I'd say getting $4 of revenue with zero expenditure is a profitable endeavour, yes.
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well as far as “all Android phones have USB-C”, a quick Google search for Android phones on Amazon brings me to this link: https://www.amazon.com/Honor-Unlocked-Smartphone-Dual-Lens-E... “Whats in the box:phone, power/wall charger, Micro USB cable and sim ejection tool.”
So, you found a phone released in 2017. From Huawei. Super cheap. That isn't even sold in the US. Where all the reviews read: "Honor 7X has the distinction of being one of the last phones to feature a micro USB port for charging instead of USB-C. Blame the price if you must..." Well done.
Well seeing that we are talking about the EU, I fail to see how the phone being sold in the US is relevant.
This is the first phone that shows up when you go to MetroPCS.
https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone/lg-aristo-4-plus
And it uses Micro USB.
https://www.amazon.com/Aristo-Compatible-Charger-Transfer-Mi...
If you care to go down the list of all the cheap Android phones that are sold, you will see a lot of phones that use micro USB.
As far as super cheap - that basically defines most Android phones being sold.
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes businesses care about the bottom line - but the only way they make money is by selling things that people want. The government should be involved in regulating where there are negative externalities. Negative externalities are not - I don’t like having two cables. Also politicians care about what the majority wants. As long as you’re part of that majority you’re fine. But if you aren’t - the last thing you want i…
Please make yourself familiar with a bit more modern economic theories. The belief that the unregulated market moves things to an optimum for all participants has been proven to be wrong by modern game theory. Not all economic games have their equilibrium at the optimum for consumers. I leave open if this particular intervention on chargers is beneficial for the public or not, but you will have to argue about charger…
And taking a look at history - even recent history. The government definitely doesn’t move things in an optimum way for all participants.
The difference is that businesses don’t have the power of the state to compel me to buy their products. I can change phones a lot easier than I can change governments.
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because a government full of people who know nothing about technology must be the right answer. What other areas of the iPhone should the government force Apple to standardize? FaceTime? AirDrop? iOS itself?
Everything where high interoperability is more beneficial for consumers than proprietary solutions by individual companies. As a rule of thumb, everything where standardization brings more benefits to consumers than innovation. Note that as consumer, I can't vote with my money for standardization. I can only vote for one of the proprietary solutions. So if 70% of consumers stick to one option, and 30% stick to the ot…
So it would be more beneficial that Apple is forced to make FaceTime interoperable and all messaging platforms. Should the government enforce that too?
Re: EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, vote to push for charging cable standard
#440Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple is already using USB-C on the bit that plugs into the wall, so if that's all this is, it's nothing. Apple has protested this, so it seems like it must be more.
What is Apple is heading toward completely sealed phones with only wireless charging / data xfer and they’re nervous that the EU is going to force them to keep the physical port on the device?
Please tell me you read my "Sealed" iPhone comment on macrumors :D
Yes. And I think they will use Smart Connector currently used on iPad as Data and Power Connection. Since it isn't really a port so the devices is still all sealed up. Assuming they get rid up Sim tray as well.