It’s been a long time coming – the European Parliament has voted for all mobile manufacturers to use a common charger type. All companies who wish to sell their products in the EU need to abide by the new rule when the guidelines are adopted this July.
According to a report by Cnet, this move is an effort to reduce e-waste being generated in Europe – with this move however, Apple is put in the spotlight for using proprietary hardware – in this case, the Lightning cable to charge their iPhones.
In this report, Apple had previous spoken out against the move, citing “an unprecedented volume of electronic waste” to occur should they have to make their accessories, for the millions of iPhones available, obsolete.
The report does not say what the standard will be however, but considering USB-C’s prominence in the market, it’s a safe bet to say that USB-C will be the way to go. This makes even more sense when you take into account not just mobile phones, but laptops and motherboards increasingly including USB-C ports too.
Apple themselves have also made their newest MacBooks and iPad Pro charge using a USB-C connector, so we see the company moving in that direction already. Perhaps what Apple is arguing is the need for more time for them to adapt.
But in any case, the new standard will be imposed this July in Europe – and we could see the move spread globally soon, and for the better too.