An Apple executive publicly stated that the company plans to comply with a new European Union regulation that will require specific devices to have a certain type of port.
At The Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference on Tuesday, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing said that they would have to comply. He said that the company still disagreed with the regulation. He said that the approach would have been better for the environment and the customers.
On Monday, the EU gave final approval to a long-under-consideration common charger law that will require all devices within specific categories to be compatible with the Universal Serial Bus. The majority of devices, including Apple's MacBook and iPad lines, have gone that route.
AdvertisementThe law requires that the phones go in that direction by the year 2024. It applies to newly introduced products, not products that were introduced before it took effect, so in theory, Apple could keep selling older devices.
Those in favor of the law argue that it will reduce e-waste and offer environmental benefits because users will be able to share cords and chargers between devices, and that it will be a boon for consumers who may feel frustrated with a confusing gadgets landscape. The regulation may stifle or prevent future innovation of new ports and technologies that could carry their own benefits for consumers and the environment, according to detractors.
At first glance, it might seem obvious that Apple would have to adopt USB-C once the regulation takes effect, but for a time, there was rampant speculation that Apple might simply go port-free and depend on wireless charging and data transfer instead. There are reports that Apple won't skip the wireless version of the universal serial bus.
The company doesn't know if it will introduce different versions of the same phone in different regions or if it will only introduce the same version in Europe.
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