Yesterday, lawmakers in the European Union selected one charging port to rule them all, the USB-C. By 2024, EU officials ruled that any mobile electronic devices sold within the EU must come with a USB-C charging port.
What Is USB-C?
As the acronym USB-C (Universal Serial Bus) suggests. USB Type-C is an industry-standard connector for transmitting both data and power on a single cable. The ports are now found on all manner of devices, from simple external hard drives to high-end laptops and the latest smartphones.
The USB-C connector looks similar to a micro USB connector at first glance, though it’s more oval in shape and slightly thicker to accommodate its best feature, the USB-C has no right way to insert it.
The EU states that the move to standardize charging ports was executed as a way to limit e-waste —consumers will be able to buy devices without a charger in the box if they so choose— Apple Already sells smartphones without the chargers in the box but for a whole different reason, profit.
The only real loser in this ruling is Apple which has stuck to its own lightning port even as every other major manufacturer moved to USB-C. All current iPhones and the base model iPad use the proprietary Lightning port. There are more than 1 billion iPhones in the world, and every model of iPhone Apple has released since 2012 has come with a Lightning port.
Apple can just stop selling in the EU, but the most likely course of action is to just make the switch to USB-C across all its devices. The California-based tech company already uses USB-C connectors on MacBooks and most iPad models and has even been testing out new iPhones with USB-C ports.
The iPhone 13 was rumored to have no ports, so there’s that option, Apple has been working tirelessly on wireless charging so they could get rid of a charging port altogether. It’s not out of the norm, after all, the company removed the iPhone’s headphone jack and never looked back.
