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EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

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Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#561

Post by pb7 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #189
_trackno5 wrote: post #49

Why do people think it is a good thing to have this enforced by law is beyond me. I don't see any win besides a minor convenience. A lightning cable weighs almost nothing and it's not a big deal to have one around. As to lightning port limitations, I question whether usb-c will give average iPhone users any other advantage other than charging their phone. What are people gonna do with it other than charge their phone…

> I don't see any win besides a minor convenience. A lightning cable weighs almost nothing and it's not a big deal to have one around. The standardization is good for a lot of purposes: - cutting down on the number of cables and especially chargers. Seriously, it's amazing to have one single Anker 65W power supply and a single cable on vacation and it can charge everything - tablet, work phone, laptop, power bank, dr…

>If there is one thing that drives EU legislation ideas, it is the convergence towards open and common, market-wide standards. This reduces the barriers to entry for small players and leads to more innovation as a result.

Can you provide some examples of innovation that the EU has made in this industry in the last 20 years?

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#562

Post by blitzar »

kalleboo wrote: post #495
jcelerier wrote: post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There were no mandates to adopt micro-usb in the EU. ... huh ? https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_11_... > Following a mandate from the European Commission, the European Standardisation Bodies CEN-CENELEC and ETSI issued the harmonised standards to be adhered to by data-enabled mobile phones compatible with the new common charger as of 2011. The common charger solution is based in the Micro-US…

They mandated the standards bodies to issue standards to adopt for those who wanted to, but didn't mandate manufacturers to adopt the standards. Or they would have spent the past 10 years fining Apple for violating them.

There is no mandate that states that if a party fails to abide by a mandate that you are mandated to fine them.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#563

Post by piperswe »

mimsee wrote: post #168
EugeneOZ wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data transfer speed is an important reason. iPhone 14 Pro can create huge videos and photos, and transferring them using Lightning is too slow.

Did the law mandate USB 3 or just the USB-C connector? You can still have USB-C connector with USB2 data rates.

iPhones don't have USB 3+ because the Lightning connector only has one differential pair for data. If iPhones had a connector with more pairs (USB-C), I doubt it would cost much of anything to add a USB 4 block to the SoC (which they already have on many Apple Silicon SoCs) and wire it up to the connector. Sure, there's more to it, but it's not rocket science.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#564

Post by matwood »

mschuster91 wrote: post #551
matwood wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - cutting down on the number of cables and especially chargers. Seriously, it's amazing to have one single Anker 65W power supply and a single cable on vacation and it can charge everything - tablet, work phone, laptop, power bank, drones, Nintendo Switch. I 'member the dark times where each of these devices had their own cable and for some even own charger. I have this now, except with 1 extra cable (which happens…

> Apple was clearly headed towards usb-c anyway, so I doubt this law changes much in their plans. Highly doubt it. In any case, the aim of the EU was to create a standard or at least force the industry into coming up with one - and had Apple been allowed to keep their proprietary connector, the competition would be completely correct in claiming "why should we keep using the standard while Apple can get away with MFi…

> Highly doubt it.

C'mon. Apple went all in on usb-c before anyone else. It hurt them with the laptop line and they reversed some. They have moved the iPad, include usb-c -> puck for the watch, and usb-c to lightning for the iPhone. They are transitioning.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#565

Post by m00dy »

TheYumasi wrote: post #555

As an EU citizen, I am really happy with this decision. I am an iPhone user, but having an iPhone is not ubiquitous here, almost all of my friends/special other, use an Android phone with USB-C. Most of their laptops, Mac or not, use or allow USB-C for charging. This as been the case for a few years now, yet, if I go somewhere for more than a full day and forget my lighting cable, my phone will become a useless paper…

As a Turk living in EU, I second the comment above.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#566

Post by rmccue »

skohan wrote: post #377
rmccue wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To give some old-school examples, how differently might industrialization have gone if rail systems weren't mandated to operate under some shared standards? I'm not sure that analogy holds particularly well. The UK did build rail systems without shared standards, and only standardised on gauge in 1846, which was very late in the industrial revolution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Gauge_War - Standards for…

> Effectively, the UK let (mainly by omission, not intentionally) the solutions compete and then selected the most broadly used solution to standardise on. We're down to two connectors here, one of which is only used by a single vendor; do you think that hasn't already happened?

I’m not questioning that at all! I’m only responding to the question posed by the parent about railway standardisation in the context of industrialisation.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#569

Post by danielfoster »

kaba0 wrote: post #440
danielfoster wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. What happens if companies want to make something better or technology improves? The way the legislation is written, will help consumers in the short-term but could stifle innovation in the long-term. Imagine if the EU had mandated DC power ports or CD-ROM drives two decades ago. It took this long for the EU to pass common standard legislation after talking about it for years. I can't imagine they will be any…

How fast can charging ports evolve even in theory, given that they have to be somewhat backwards compatible to begin with? I think the law can keep up with all these iterations of lightning cables apple invented during its free reign over their port.

Companies are now disincentived to innovate because there is no guarantee money spent developing a new standard will result in something allowed to be sold.

No one can predict new technology. Ideally the law should have an end date or require regular renewal.

Re: EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C by End of 2024

#570

Post by fsflover »

BurningFrog wrote: post #453
ben_w wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is genuinely innovative about the iPhone connector at this point? It's 10 years old, and the only selling point I can see it having over USB (even when it was new) was the rotational symmetry (which is now also possible with USB C, which is what's being mandated).

The point is that the next connector innovation will have to be ratified by the European Parliament.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33080933
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