The lightning port for the iPhone was first made available to the public by Apple in 2012. It was the substitute for the 30-pin dock, which had reached the end of its useful life and required prompt replacement. Specifically, USB-C was significantly more successful than all others and actually stuck around and became the primary port that most tech giants use for almost all of their gadgets and devices, including Apple, which uses it in its Macs and iPads. Over the past decade, many other charging solutions have been introduced, many of them being superior to the lightning port.
Apple has been hesitant to switch its iPhones over to the same port, despite utilising it for many of its other devices. However, this would all change today, and it is no longer Apple’s decision to make. In order to standardise charging ports for all devices and make USB-C the sole charging port available, the EU introduced laws in September of last year. Since the end of June, this lawsuit has been upheld, and as a result, all tech businesses will now be subject to Apple’s new rule.
The majority of businesses don’t mind this and have switched to mostly using USB-C because it has long been the superior charging port available; however, Apple refused to make this switch. Apple stated that while they agreed with the concept of standardising chargers, they disagreed with the suggested approach of simply standardising the charging port because this would restrict innovation and impede advancement in the tech industry. Apple would prefer not to be forced to change its lightning port charging system because it has been a dependable and trusted technique for many years.
Apple’s statement was that, “We share the European Commission’s commitment to protecting the environment. We remain concerned that strict regulation mandating just one type of connector stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, which in turn will harm consumers in Europe and around the world.”
The European Council estimates that every year in Europe, unwanted charger purchases cost $312 million. expenses that could have been prevented if users had just needed one charging cable rather than several for each gadget they owned. Also contributing to over 11,000 tonnes of garbage annually are cables and chargers. Thus, it is only natural that the EU would like to do away with everything and mandate that all businesses use a single charging port. It also makes logical that they would agree and that they would now enforce this rule.
By 2024, Apple and all other tech companies will be compelled to exclusively utilize USB-C, giving them time to adapt their products to the new connector This criterion, however, did not apply to the iPhone 14, which was released this year, and it may not even apply to the next iPhone, which will be announced next year and which could provide us with a clearer understanding of Apple’s potential long-term strategy.
Since it has been rumored for some time that Apple would soon introduce a completely wireless iPhone, this might be the iPhone 15, there is always the chance that the iPhone 15 won’t even have a lightning port. By doing so, Apple might truly create a completely wireless iPhone 15 as opposed to simply conforming and including a USB-C port.
