A day after EU legislators voted to ratify a common charging standard to be enforced for all smartphones sold in the bloc starting in 2024, Apple officially announced for the first time at a Wall Street Journal event on Tuesday that it will switch over to USB-C chargers for its upcoming iPhone devices.
The EU’s new universal charging protocol for mobile devices received final approval from legislators earlier this week. By the end of 2024, all smartphones, tablets, headphones, cameras, gaming consoles, wireless mice, and keyboards will have to comply with the new regulations by having a USB Type-C charging port. By the spring of 2026, this regulation will apply to all laptops sold in the bloc.
The proposal, according to EU legislators, will reduce e-waste and ensure individuals only need to carry a single charger for all of their gadgets. Currently, almost all current Android devices, as well as Apple’s iPad tablets, use USB-C charges.
While the new Macbooks from Apple come with the company’s exclusive Magsafe charger, USB-C charging is also supported.
The EU’s regulation takes effect in late 2024, but according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the USB-C charger was “almost a certainty” for the iPhone 15 of next year. Since the release of the new 10th-generation iPad, USB-C charging is supported on all Apple tablets. Apple’s AirPods, meanwhile, still need to be charged via a lightning cable and will require a redesign to embrace USB-C.
Gurman stated in his newsletter published earlier this month that Apple’s move to USB-C is merely a band-aid solution until the company completely adopts wireless charging on all of its products, thereby producing a “portless” iPhone. The EU stated in a news statement earlier this month about the unified charging standard that it was also aiming to “harmonize interoperability criteria” for wireless charging by the end of 2024, probably to foresee this change. Since almost all wireless charging-capable gadgets, including Apple’s iPhones, are compatible with the interoperable Qi charging standard, this move is likely to encounter less opposition.
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