In just five days we are going to get to know the new iPhone 15 which, among other features, will have a new USB-C connection and charging port that will replace the Lightning connector, used by Apple for 11 years, when it launched the iPhone 5. The European Union has forced this change with the message –false, from my point of view– that now there will be a single charger for all mobile phones, when in reality what there will be will be a single cable, because apple chargers have been around for several generations that can be used with any other phone.
As a user, I am delighted that I need only one cable. iPhones have not included a charger in the box for several years. Apple removed this accessory that used to accompany its phones because by removing it it could reduce its packaging to exactly half its size. This has two motivations: when transporting cargoes, half as many containers and ships are needed as when the chargers were given away. By the way, it pollutes less. Less cost and less climate impact. A round play.
Other brands have followed Apple down this path. Out chargers. Some even no longer include the cable. But European concerns are running up against the plans of some Chinese companies. The mobiles with the highest fast charging capabilities come from the Asian giant. Every phone they sell comes with a corresponding super-ultra-mega-fast charger. Of course, USB-C, as established by European regulators.
The obligation to use the USB-C port is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it benefits consumers by unifying an essential accessory such as the phone's charging and communications connector; on the other, by forcing everyone to use the same standard, the ability to innovate is hampered. Nobody is going to try to create something better than USB-C, since no alternative to it is allowed.
Now that Apple seems to have given in (or perhaps the European obligation to modernize a connector that was already 11 years old has come in handy), the next stage that the European Commission should undertake is to really put an end to so many chargers. Conversations and negotiations with some brands will not be easy. The mobiles of many Chinese companies boast that theirs charge at breakneck speeds.
Europe has spent years trying to get technology companies on the sidelines, which tend to take advantage of the lack of regulation on new advances to gain an advantage. In the long run, the slow bureaucratic process in Brussels has positive effects for users around the world, but the focus is usually on American companies. What comes from China should count just the same.
