Apple has announced that it would stop using the Lightning connector on its iPhones in two years after European authorities mandated USB charging as standard for all handsets.
All smartphones sold in the EU after the fall of 2024 must-have charging ports that use a USB-C connection. Other consumer goods, including e-readers, gaming consoles, laptops, and the great majority of new Android phones, already come with oval-shaped connectors as standard.
A large portion of Apple’s product line has already adopted the standard, which enables the transmission of up to 240W of power and 40Gbps of data over a single cable. The 12 MacBook was the company’s first laptop to utilise USB-C for charging in 2015 and starting in 2018, iPads stopped using the Lightning port.
The business, however, has resisted the demands that it converts its phones to the standard, arguing that “tight legislation requiring only one type of connection stifles innovation rather than fostering it, which in turn would affect customers in Europe and throughout the world.”
The smaller size of the Lightning connection and the wide variety of Lightning-based adapters and accessories that people all over the world own as arguments in favour of it being made. Despite the regulation’s stated aim of reducing wasted gadgets, the necessity to replace such cables can result in an increase in e-waste.
Greg “Joz” Joswiak, Apple’s chief of marketing, said the business is now admitting defeat. He said at a technology conference in California, “Obviously we’ll have to comply, we have no option.”
However, he asserted that it “would have been better environmentally and for our clients to not have a government be so prescriptive” to have such strict regulations.
Joswiak declined to comment on the release date or if the business would try to make USB-C iPhones an exclusive for the EU. The iPhone 15, which is anticipated for sale in September 2023, or its successor, which is expected for release in September 2024, is most likely to be the first to use the connection given the company’s yearly release cycle for iPhones. Joswiak continued, “The Europeans are the ones determining scheduling for European clients.
