No! I was fully expecting them to break the law and offer Lightning ports!

> He said that neither Lightning — the current iPhone charging port – nor the now-ubiquitous USB-C would have been invented if that switch had occurred.

Because nobody would ever want to improve connector design if Apple didn't do their own thing, right?

Apple, we have years old technology at 5x the price but the fanbois will still use it.

Fuck them for not doing it sooner.

Apple's arrogance has no boundaries

Dang was hoping they wouldnt comply so we get some cyberpunk megacorp vs government war up in here

Oh how gracious of them

Couldnt they have just made an EU specific model, or removed the port entirely?

Does it make any sense to have USB-C in Europe and not anywhere else?

I’m wondering when they go to wireless charging only to avoid this requirement.

Does the law require specifically USB C? If so, if that law had been made in the past requiring mini-USB, presumably no one would ever have designed an alternative for phones until the law allowed for an alternative.

I thought this as well

No one should be thrilled to have governments (especially supranational ones with little accountability like the EU) mandating designs and features. Had it been around in 1995, the EU probably would have mandated compatibility with Microsoft Bob.

You mean no phone company would make their own proprietary connection for profit and nothing else? Sounds great. Charging ports should not be designed by phone companies. Thats the point of this. Not to stop the development of new port.

The U in USB stands for universal, it is developed thru a non profit organization, supported by lots of differeny tech giants (apple included). Its just like how we have standards for wireless charging or wifi. When you go to a hotel, you dont have to worry if they only support "apple wifi", you know that all your wifi enabled devices will be able to connect. Theres little/no benefit to allow companies to do their own thing. Lets get everyones hands on helping develop the next universal standard, instead of working on their own.

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Yeah, hell, lets let the phone companies develop their own wall outlets too! Call the electrician, we need an iOutlet!

Charging ports should not be designed by phone companies? Are you calling Apple a phone company? Better get them kick off the USB board then…since Apple is a member.

Some connectors suck, others are good for their time…but all will eventually age out of viability. Both competition and cooperation enable advances like USB-C, but if government removes the choice, how likely is it that there will be any impetus to move towards a newer standard with higher throughput or power capacities? And will this create artificial limits on device capabilities in the future as they limit those capabilities due to the limits of USB-C?

I’ll certainly enjoy having fewer cables to carry at least in the short term.

Apple does a lot of things, being the second largest mobile phone manufacturer is one of them.

USB C is a decided standard. Tech decides standards to help progress, not impede it. When a better standard is required, it will be adapted. For now, it is a great standard that doesnt cause any bottlenecks. I have a feeling a new standard will be created before we even come close to a bottleneck with USB C, you are worrying about non-issues.

Edit: yeah, looks like usb c can charge a phone fast enough to damage a standard lithium ion phone battery, and supports data transfer rates of up to 10gb/s. Id say we're good in that department for a while.

Wouldnt be the first time apple removed a port before the world was ready for it..