Wen | Wang Xin of the Weekly Magazine of Finance and Economics
Edit the | You Yong
A proposal by NetEase CEO Ding Lei brought him a lot of trouble. On the evening of January 14, Ding Lei issued a letter of apology, apologizing for his previous request for self-media deletions. "The regular employees of our team do have the problem of poor consideration and improper operation." Ding Lei said.
Controversy over an interface proposal
The cause of the incident was the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's response to Ding Lei's proposal. On January 10, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology made a formal written response to NetEase CEO Ding Lei's "Proposal on Unifying the Standard Port of Smart Electronic Equipment Charger to Further Reduce E-waste to Help Carbon Neutrality", saying that it would "continue to promote the formulation of relevant national standards, promote the integration and unification of charging interfaces and technologies, improve the recycling rate of electrical and electronic products, and strive to promote the high-quality development of the consumer electronics industry".
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that with the rapid iteration of charging, data interface and charging technology, the current intelligent terminal market has formed a pattern of USB-C interface as the mainstay and multiple interfaces coexisting. When the user replaces the device, the original charger and data cable are mostly limited, resulting in huge waste. Vigorously promoting the integration of charging interfaces and technologies is conducive to reducing electronic waste and improving the efficiency of resource utilization.
Subsequently, the proposal received a lot of consumer support. "Finance and Economics" weekly learned that in an online public opinion poll launched on January 14, the proportion of votes in favor of the unified charging interface was as high as 88%.
"I now have a lot of mobile phone chargers at home, change a few mobile phones, a bunch of chargers and charging cables at home, all brands have them. Not only the charging interface should be unified, but if it is a fast charging protocol and standard, it can be agreed. A consumer told The Weekly .
But Ding Lei's proposal has been criticized by some self-media. On January 13, self-media person Yu Ping publicly questioned Ding Lei and his proposal, arguing that unifying the charging port of smart devices would hinder technological innovation.
Yu Ping believes that from the emergence of smart phones to the popularization of just 10 years, technology has been constantly iterating. From Apple to Android, mobile phone interfaces are constantly changing, even if the existing type-c pd3.0 is not the most advanced standard, the new standard pd3.1 that can support 240 watts of charging is ready to go online.
"The government replaces enterprises, replaces the market, and unifies technical standards, often stifling the impetus for enterprise innovation, so that new technologies that can benefit our lives more are locked in the cabinet of the laboratory." Imagine, if in the early stage of the development of smart phones, in order to protect the environment, forced to unify charging standards and interfaces, will there be improvements in charging standards and interfaces later? Yu Ping said that even if unification is promoted, it is necessary to cooperate and game between enterprises, rather than the government overstepping its bounds.
The day after the article was published, Yu Ping received a retraction letter from NetEase and asked it to apologize publicly. After this matter was exposed, it caused a lot of repercussions. Therefore, on the evening of January 14, NetEase CEO Ding Lei issued an apology letter and responded to the controversy about whether the unified charging port standard will hinder industry innovation.
Ding Lei said that the proposal is not rushed, and the team did a lot of research in the early stage and found that it was the pain points and needs of users, so the relevant proposals were made at the CPPCC meeting. Ding Lei also believes that the voice of controversy represents another voice in society and should encourage fully open discussion.
Unified Interface is the trend, with support outweighing opposition
At present, there are three mainstream charging ports on electronic devices such as smartphones, namely Apple Lightning, Android Micro and Android Type-C. In 2009, the European Union issued relevant policies requiring mobile phone manufacturers to unify charging interfaces. According to the EU proposal, the charging interface of electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and headphones will be unified into USB-C, which is the interface standard commonly used in Android mobile phones.
What are the advantages of the Type-c interface? From a purely technical point of view, first of all, compared to the Micro-USB interface can only be inserted in one direction, the Type-C interface can be inserted front and back, which is convenient enough for practical use. Secondly, the Type-C interface can support stronger fast charging. The Type-C can carry more pins inside, so that the voltage carried by the interface can reach up to 20 volts, so that the charging power can exceed 100 watts. In addition, more and more expansion devices on the market are using type-C interfaces.
In the domestic market, domestic mobile phone manufacturers will basically not be affected by the "unified interface", because most of the Current Android mobile phones have been adapted to the USB-C interface. But Apple has stuck to the Lighting interface.
Apple's persistence has also been under pressure from the outside world. The European Union has repeatedly proposed a unified charging interface to Apple, but Apple has been opposing it, citing stifling technological innovation. Apple also said that the unified charger interface affects the rights and interests of consumers' independent choice, and users may not be able to buy the Lightning interface they like, so they resolutely reject relevant proposals, and even coerce industry authorities to jointly oppose.
But in fact, if the iPhone adapts to the USB-C interface, it is undoubtedly to abandon the original very profitable MFI certification business.
It's a lucrative business for Apple. The cost of the manufacturer to obtain MFi certification and chips is 15-30 yuan, and the MFi certification fee charged by Apple every year is hugely profitable. Moreover, a 1-meter-long Lightning interface data cable, Apple's official website is priced at 145 yuan, and the price of a 20W USB-C power adapter is also more than 100 yuan. Because Apple has canceled the gift of charging adapters since the iPhone12, consumers want to put together the data cable interface and power adapter, they have to spend an additional 290 yuan. In 2020, Apple's revenue in data lines has exceeded $2 billion.
The EU has given major manufacturers two years of buffer time. In 2018, Apple used the Type-C interface on the iPad Pro for the first time, and in 2019, the iPhone also used the Type-C charging interface on the charging adapter side.
In this regard, some analysts believe that Apple will sooner or later replace all the Lighting interface with a USB-C interface, and with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology starting the unification of mobile phone charging interfaces and specifications, this means that the future mobile phones sold by Apple in China are also Type-C. But there is also a view that Apple may also bypass the unified interface barrier and launch a new round of technological revolution, or no longer use the charging cable to charge mobile phones.
However, the current consensus inside and outside the industry is that unified interface is the trend. In order to achieve the unification of charging technology and interface, the state has carried out the following three tasks: First, the development of unified standard charging technical specifications. The second is to accelerate the compatibility of various charging technologies with each other. The third is to strengthen the recycling of waste electrical appliances and electronics.
However, some people in the industry still believe that if the legislation is forced to be unified, the speed of law update will certainly not keep up with the speed of technological development, and the future will cause chaos in the market.
It is worth noting that many netizens have linked the unification of the charging interface of electric vehicles with the unification of the charging interface of mobile phones. There are examples of this.
When Tesla first entered the Chinese market, Tesla had its own set of charging standards, but in order to better integrate into various regions, Tesla plans to abandon the control of charging standards and adopt national standards of various countries. On October 16, 2017, Tesla announced that it will release models that meet the charging interface of the "new national standard" (GB/T20234-2015) to the Chinese mainland market. Tesla will make minor adjustments to the body of the new model to adapt to the changes in the charging interface.
In contrast, at present, the charging interface of electric vehicles also initially has a situation of chaotic charging standards and different charging interfaces. On December 28, 2015, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the Standards Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other five major departments jointly issued five newly revised electric vehicle charging interfaces and communication protocols. Since 2016, the new standard has unified the charging interface and communication protocol of domestic charging piles, completely ending the chaotic situation of charging standards across the country from both hardware and software aspects.
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