Apple’s new iPads have USB-C ports already
Thanks to the European Union, future versions of the iPhone will swap out Lightning ports for USB-C. The new law will require many new electronics to use a single port, USB-C, for charging. That will include the iPhone. While the law goes into effect in fall of 2024, Apple’s next iPhone, the iPhone 15, will likely comply by switching to USB-C. What does this mean for consumers? Just one charging cable for your iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Apple TV remote, Android phone, keyboard, mouse, and more. It means one port for everything, just one cable. You won’t need as many cables, you can save e-waste by not buying extra cables for certain electronics. You’ll just have to worry about your USB-C cables. That’s it. Almost everything associated with charging will get that much easier.
Apple, however, isn’t happy. Now they have to ditch a proprietary cable, a source of income. Apple claims it’ll impact the environment and upset customers, but it’s more likely that it will actually cut down on e-waste, as the law intends, and delight customers, who won’t need quite so many cables.
Apple’s Begrudged Acceptance
Joanna Stern, tech columnist at The Wall Street Journal, sat down with Sr. VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, and Sr. VP of Worldwide Marketing, Greg Joswiak to talk tech. During the full interview, which you can find on the WSJ YouTube page, Joswiak discussed the new EU law forcing Apple to adopt USB-C on all of their devices, including the iPhone. Apple will have to comply with the EU law, and Joswiak didn’t seem happy about it.
Joswiak stated that, while he thinks the EU was “well-meaning,” the people who know how to best move to a new port is Apple. He pointed out that they separated the cable from the USB AC adapter, so customers could “choose” their cable. Of course, you’ll just use whatever the manufacturer forces you to use, and, in Apple’s case, that’s a Lightning cable. Joswiak also claims Apple customers will be “disrupted.” However, nearly everyone has a USB-C product in their household. The iPhone is the outlier here. With it finally conforming, users will finally be able to have just one cable type for everything.
He did bring up the issue of e-waste, and this isn’t unfounded. After all, when you no longer have any Lightning cable devices, what are you going to do with those useless Lightning cables? You should take them to a place that collects e-waste for recycling, which is basically every electronics retailer. Most people will likely throw them away, wasting the resources within. Apple was fine with that when they switched from the 30-pin connector to the Lightning cable though. Besides, once all devices are using the same cables, you won’t have to buy so many cables. That will reduce e-waste in the long run. That was the point of this law to begin with, make things easier for consumers and reduce e-waste. Just make sure to recycle your old cables, even if they’re broken.
Apple Was On This Path Already
Even the AirPods Pro 2 have USB-C already!
Apple’s not upset about this transition, specifically. After all, Apple was already on this path. They replaced Lightning in the base model iPad with USB-C this year. The entire Mac lineup uses USB-C, not a Lightning port in sight. The new Apple TV remote and AirPods Pro 2 use USB-C. Hell, Apple even made a dongle so their old Apple Pencil could use USB-C instead of the Lightning connector. The last holdout was the iPhone, and they were likely going to ditch Lightning on that for the iPhone 15 regardless.
My theory is that Apple’s actually upset that lawmakers are telling them what to do. Apple replaced the 30-pin cable with the Lightning cable. They could have used micro-USB, like every other cellphone manufacturer at the time. Why Lightning? It had some benefits. It was thin and reversible, for example. It’s outdated now, and significantly slower than USB-C. Apple had to replace Lightning. However, now they can’t introduce a future proprietary connector. There will never be another MFi program for Apple charging cables. Apple won’t be able to charge third party manufacturers to use their standards. Apple lost a future revenue stream, and that’s got to upset them more than customers having better charging ports.
Personally, I can’t wait for photos and video to take next to no time to transfer to my Mac. The Lightning cable is so slow, while USB-C is actually… lightning quick. Of course, as a diehard iPhone 13 mini fan, I don’t think I’ll be upgrading for a long time. I’ll be hoarding Lightning cables for years to come. Sure will be nice to not need them one day though!