The European Union wants to adopt the Type-C interface uniformly, and Apple's good days are over?

Author | Guo Lu editor-in-charge | Zhang Hongyue

Exhibiting | CSDN（ID：CSDNnews）

Since Apple used the Lightning interface in 2012, Apple has never replaced the iPhone's charging interface. But with the popularity of Type-C, there is more and more discussion about whether the iPhone needs to use the Type-C interface. In order to reduce the cost of living and reduce the waste of electronic products, the European Union has been studying the unified charging interface in the past two years. Despite Apple's strenuous opposition, the European Union passed a unified interface resolution in January 2020 with a margin of 582 votes to 40, with the goal of harmonizing standards for mobile devices across eu countries.

While Europe advocates a unified interface, similar voices have emerged in China. Last month, NetEase CEO Ding Lei proposed to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology the "Proposal on Unifying the Standard Port of Smart Electronic Device Charger to Further Reduce E-Waste to Help Carbon Neutrality", hoping that the charging port can also be unified in China, but this proposal has been questioned by many people.

Although people have mixed reviews of this proposal, the response of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reflects the official attitude In the reply, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that it will continue to promote the formulation of relevant national standards, promote the integration 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. It can be seen that the government supports the proposal of a unified charging port.

Why does the EU insist on a unified charging interface?

For more than a decade, EU lawmakers have been working on a unified charging interface, citing the waste of electronics caused by chargers with different specifications. Therefore, in order to reduce costs, reduce electronic waste and facilitate consumers' lives, the EU has expressed its hope to ensure that mobile phone chargers can be unified in the future and suitable for other electronic devices, including tablets.

In 2009, Nokia, Sony, Motorola, and Apple agreed to use the Micro-USB interface for all subsequent phones by 2011, and the goal of a unified charging interface seemed imminent.

However, many companies began to adopt the Type-C interface, and Apple insisted on using its Ligntning interface. Seeing that companies do not cooperate, the EU is prepared to rely on legislation to achieve its objectives.

Since 2017, Switzerland has expressed its support for the European Union's development of a unified charging interface bill. As soon as the new bill came out, a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Communications Office said: "Switzerland fully supports the new unified charging interface proposed by the European Union." It is reported that Switzerland has been encouraging all mobile phones and tablets and other devices to use the charging interface uniformly, so this bill will not have any impact on them, and even promote the unification of domestic charging interfaces.

In 2019, the European Union conducted a survey on common chargers for portable devices, and nearly one in five respondents said that the non-uniformity of chargers led to frequent incompatibility of chargers, often requiring the preparation of multiple chargers, and the charging speed was also different, which brought them a lot of trouble.

Therefore, the EU claims that by developing a unified charger standard, this problem can be solved and the cost of living of consumers can be greatly reduced. In the same year, it was proposed to use the Type-C interface as a universal charging interface for mobile phones, tablets and headphones. This is the first time the EUROPEAN Union has made this decision, but the proposal has previously been strongly opposed by Apple. The reason is that half of the chargers at that time were equipped with Micro-USB cables, while 29% were Type-C and 21% were Lightning. It can be seen that the unified charging interface has a great impact on Apple.

Why is Apple opposed to a unified charging interface?

In 2016, Apple said it supported Type-C as a charging interface, but refused to use it on the iPhone. Apple believes that the iPhone's body is too thin to accommodate the Type-C interface, and using this standard would cost the company up to 2 billion euros.

Apple even commissioned the Copenhagen Economic Research Company to conduct a study, which mentioned that the mandatory replacement of universal chargers could have an impact on consumers. According to the study, if a unified charging interface is switched to, consumers will need to abandon accessories such as interface compatibility lines and bases, resulting in a loss of 1.5 billion euros.

Apple said: "We believe that if only one charging interface is allowed, it will stifle innovation rather than encourage innovation, and it will harm the interests of European consumers." “

But in this regard, netizens have said: "Apple says environmental protection, and its brain is full of business."

Although Apple refuses to use the Type-C interface, "fruit fans" do not necessarily think so. Last October, Ken Pillonel posted a video on YouTube titled "The World's First Type-C iPhone Is Born." In the video, Pillonel said that it has successfully miniaturized the PCB board and put it into the iPhone X, thus replacing the Lightning interface with a Type-C interface, and this iPhone not only has normal charging functions, but also can also transmit data through the Type-C interface.

The figure is derived from ICphoto

With a final agreement at the end of the year, where will the Lightning interface go?

The European Harmonized Charging Bill was first released last year, and lawmaker Alex Agius Saliba said a vote on the bill would be held in May this year and the final draft would be discussed with member states.

He added that he hoped the bill would go into effect within six months of its passage, which would be even better. This means that the iPhone 15 may be the first Apple phone to be affected.

Saliba said he hopes the bill will cover other electronic devices and computers if it can. In addition, he also said that he hopes to unify wireless charging standards by 2025.

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