The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of legislation that will eventually require all mobile phones sold in the EU to have a wired charging port. The proposed rules mean that if Apple wants to continue selling its phones in one of its most lucrative global markets, it will have to remove the 10-year-old Lightning port from its phones and switch to the newer, more powerful,usb-c port.
Reducing e-waste is the EU's goal. The EU believes that if more devices are compatible with the same cables, they will be less likely to be thrown away. It hopes the rules will reduce the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill. The company wants to save consumers money by allowing them to reuse chargers and reduce the lock-in effect of proprietary accessories.
How soon will Apple have to switch?
The EU's new rules, which are technically an amendment to its radio equipment directive, are yet to be approved. The European Council needs to sign off on the legislation before it can be published in the official journal. It would enter into force on the 20th.
Even after that happens, companies like Apple will have a two-year grace period in order to make sure they are ready for the future. The rules are likely to come into force by the end of the year, according to the European Parliament. Regardless of the manufacturer, they will apply. Apple is the company that is likely to see the biggest impact since it is the only major phone maker yet to switch to the new standard.
It is safe to assume that Apple will release a new flagship phone around the same time as the new rules come into effect. The EU's legislation won't come into effect for 24 months after it's formally approved by the European Council, so the iPhone 16 could be launched just before that. If Apple continues with its current naming convention, the first model forced to use USB-C for wired charging will be the iMac.
New rules wouldn't apply to products on the market before.
The rules suggest that Apple won't have to make the change. The European Parliament stated in a press release today that devices already on the market won't need to be withdrawn, so if Apple launches a Lightning-port iPhone ahead of the deadline, it can keep selling the phone. Products placed on the market before the date of application would not be subject to the new rules. When the European Parliament framed the rules back in June, they said that there shouldn't be products on the market that aren't compliant.
It is possible for Apple to announce and launch a Lightning port-equipped iPhone 16 before the EU's new rules come into effect. According to reports, it could be preparing to switch to the new technology sooner than later. It was recently suggested by an Apple analyst that the company could make the change in 2023. Mark Gurman is more cautious about the company's time frame, and recently reported that it is the most likely time to change.
Beyond phones, the rules will apply to all electronic devices, including tablets, headphones, keyboards, and mice, which means Apple will need to offer a wired charging port for the Magic Mouse. The implementation period for laptops has been given a slightly longer one, which means they won't have to use USB-C for charging until early in the 20th century. When the small size of the device does not allow it to be equipped with ausb type-c receptacle, it is exempt from the EU's rules.
Other devices are also affected.
EU product legislation only applies to goods sold in its member states, so it can't force Apple to switch to a different type of phone. If Apple wants the iPhone to be exclusive to the EU, it could limit it to EU markets or even leave the region altogether. The European market made up almost a quarter of Apple's net sales in its last financial year, and Apple's emphasis on offering as few versions of its products as possible is likely to lead to the sale of the USB-C version of the iPhone.
The wired charging port could be eliminated completely if Apple wanted to avoid adding a Type-C port. It is possible for Apple to remove the wired charging port from the phone and make it portless, since the rules state that the phone can be charged via wired charging. It is not known if these discussions ever got out of the planning stages, but the company's employees have discussed that topic in the past. The EU plans to standardize wireless charging at a later time.
It's possible that a tech upgrade for the iPhone is happening with the switch to theusb-c.
There aren't simple workarounds to the rules. The wording of the legislation makes it impossible for Apple to try and get around them by offering a different charging method for the phone. The legislation of the EU states that ausb type-c port must remain accessible at all times. It isn't going to be able to be changed.
Apple could have a lot to gain from the switch tousb-c. Over the years, the universal connector has been upgraded to support higher and higher data transfer and charging speeds, with the most recent specifications released by theUSB-IF allowing for up to 120W of charging and 80 Gbps of data transfer. The most recent iPhones come in at 27W for charging and just 480Mbps for data transfer. Apple's Mac and iPad lineup has a lot of use of theusb-c
As a proprietary standard, Lightning has given Apple unprecedented control over the accessory market for its phones, but it hasn't kept up with the specifications of modern cables. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Development, said in September 2012 that the Lightning port would be a modern one for the next ten years. The EU believes it is time for Apple to move on.
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