What They Say
The European Parliament passed the regulation, recommended by the EU Commission, that will mean that all new phones and tablets sold in the EU from the autumn of 2024 will have to use USB Type-C connections for charging. The regulation will apply to notebooks in 2026. The rules also apply to eReaders and earbuds.
What We Think
As I have said before, I have some sympathy with Apple and others (but mainly Apple) that don’t want to standardise as they are concerned about losing potential design flexibility and the opportunity to innovate. However, in a discussion about a forthcoming trip with my wife, she said “What about charging my phone?”. I was able to show here that her USB Type-C connector meant that I could charge with my smartphone charger, my iPad charger or my PC charger, or from a cable in a USB-port in my PC. That’s a level of flexibility that would really have helped me a few times in the past!
I’m astonished at what the USB group has done with the connection over the years with huge power delivery and 80Gbps via USB4 version 2 soon. Amazing! (BR)
Apple already uses USB-C as you can see on my iPad charger. Image:Meko
