- wording
- BBC News World
June 7, 2022
image source, Getty Images
The days of searching for the right cell phone charger are coming to an end in much of Europe.
The European Union (EU) has agreed that for the fall of 2024 all cell phones and other mobile devices will need to use a USB Type-C charger.
This has a special impact on Apple products.
The telephones iPhone and some tablets iPad they will have to stop using their dedicated charging port. And the new regulation will eventually apply to laptops.
Devices already existing before the entry into force will be exempt from complying with this measure.
The new regulations were agreed by the Council and the European Parliament and will have to be formally approved and then published following the summer recess.
Apple told the BBC it had no comment at this time. But in September 2021 were opposed to the proposal.
What devices will the standard include?
Apple is the largest manufacturer to use a unique charging port, called Lightningfor some of your devices, like the iPhone.
Apple has been using “lightning” for years.
Android devices, meanwhile, mostly use USB-C and micro-USB charging ports.
But the new European standard is intended to include all “small and medium portable electronics”, which includes Cell phones, tablets, headsets, handheld game consoles, and portable speakers.
Any of these that are charged with a cable must have a USB Type-C portregardless of who makes the devices.
Laptops will also have to comply with the ruling, but manufacturers will have 40 months following it takes effect to make changes.
The deal also includes a plan for customers to choose whether or not you want a cable to charge your new electronic devices at the time of purchase.
“This law is part of a broader effort by the European Union to make products in the EU more sustainable, reduce e-waste and make life easier for consumers,” the announcement read.
It would save consumers “up to 250 million euros [US$267 millones] a year in unnecessary purchases of chargers” and would reduce 11,000 tonnes of waste a year, the EU added.
Why is Apple opposed?
Apple, along with 10 other big tech leaders like Nokia and Samsung, signed a memorandum of understanding in 2009.
In it, he promised to provide consumers with compatible chargers with micro-USB ports.
image source, Getty Images
Apple devices will need to adapt their charging ports to USB-C.
However, the US firm took advantage of a legal loophole that allowed him to continue using his own charging cable if it also offered a micro-USB adapter.
In 2014, the EU passed the “Radio Equipment Directive”, which called for a “renewed effort to develop a common charger”.
Apple insisted that its thinnest devices would not be able to accommodate the new USB-C technology. According to the company, meeting the desired standard would cost up to US$2 billion.
and last year decided to definitively reject the European measure.
“The strict regulation that requires only one type of connector represses innovation instead of encouraging itwhich in turn will hurt consumers in Europe and around the world,” a spokesman for the firm told the BBC last year.
An alternative might be the ports of wireless charginga technology that has already been adopted by iPhones and other smartphones.
Some analysts predict that Apple might do away with its charging ports altogether and, in the future, release iPhone and iPad models that rely solely on wireless charging.
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