Sooner or later Apple’s iPhone will have to have a USB-C port.
Yesterday, October 4th, the time had finally come: The European Parliament decides on the uniform USB standard, to which all manufacturers in the industry will have to adhere in the future. However, not immediately, because as is so often the case, there is a period of two years so that Apple and other brands can prepare for this changeover.
To be more precise, until the end of 2024 they still have the option of bringing smartphones onto the market without the established USB-C connection. But not only mobile phones are affected by this law, because from this point on, the uniform charging standard in the form of USB-C applies to all small to medium-sized electrical devices. Manufacturers only have until spring 2026 for laptops.
The law change at a glance and what it means for Apple
In summary, the change is intended to force a uniform standard at EU level, at least until the end of 2024. Manufacturers must provide a permanent USB-C connection in their devices, which means that this change in the law must not be circumvented with optional adapters.
In addition to consumer friendliness, far less electronic waste should also be achieved. Because the European Parliament assumes that fewer chargers will be disposed of as a result of the uniform standard.
The official report linked in the introduction goes on to say that around 11,000 tons of discarded and unused chargers end up in landfills. Parliament also estimates costs of 250 million dollars that are saved annually when buying chargers.
The Lightning port was first introduced by Apple in the iPhone 5 in 2012.
In addition, no so-called Lock-In
-Effect more where consumers are dependent on one manufacturer, according to the press report. The law itself passed the plenary with an overwhelming majority of 602 votes in favour. On the other hand, only 13 votes were in favor and 8 abstained.
Finally, these changes still have to be formally approved by the European Council, and 20 days later it will come into force. Member states are given a binding deadline of 12 months to implement the regulations. A further twelve months after the end of the implementation period are available to apply these. The European Parliament notes that the new rules do not apply to products placed on the market before the date of application
.
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Conversely, what does this mean specifically for manufacturers like Apple? As described in the introduction, the European Parliament is leaving the gap that in theory an iPhone with a Lightning connector could still be launched in September 2024. In general, this does not necessarily mean that you can look forward to an iPhone 15 (if the series continues) with a USB-C connection next year.
Of course, these regulations apply across the industry and to all players equally. However, the Cupertino-based manufacturer is likely to feel the biggest impact. In addition to the iPhone, the headphones, keyboard and mouse from Apple are also equipped with the 10-year-old connection.
According to other reports, there is still hope and the manufacturer decides to integrate it into the iPhone in the near future. The reliable and well-informed Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo pointed to Twitter indicate that a corresponding smartphone could be ready as early as 2023. Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman found in his report however, more reserved words and spoke of 2023 at the earliest
.
The benefits of USB-C in an iPhone
If we look purely at the charging of iPhones, the improvements are manageable. The current smartphone from Apple is generally considered a real endurance runner in terms of battery capacity. Nevertheless, you would be able to charge the device a lot faster with the established USB port. Over the past few years, the standard has been continuously improved and its latest version is said to enable a charging capacity of up to 240 watts.
But not only will charging be rapidly faster, data transfer speeds will also increase tremendously. The Lightning port enables a transfer rate of just 480 Mbit/s with USB 2.0, while the Thunderbolt 4 connection achieves an impressive 40 Gbit/s. This transmission speed should even double to a whopping 80 Gbit/s in the near future.
The iPhone 14 Pro has a 48-megapixel camera and allows recording in cinema mode with 4k at 30 frames per second.
But why is faster transfer so relevant for an iPhone? For most iPhone users, such speeds may not matter much. However, if you use the camera features of an iPhone, such as cinema mode in 4K, ProRes recordings or photos with the new 48-megapixel camera in raw format, frustration can quickly arise when transferring the data.
Because these image and video formats all take up a lot more storage space on your iPhone. It was not without reason that Apple decided much earlier to install the current USB standard in their Macs and iPads. If you would like to know more about the new version of the USB-C connection, my colleague Sören will bring you up to date:
You might not even need to buy new cables for the next USB 4 release
What do you think of the forthcoming change in legislation at EU level? Is this an intervention that should have come much earlier or do you not care about the cable clutter anyway? Write us your opinion in the comments!
