You're at a friend's house, and upon realizing your iPhone is about to die you ask if they have a charger lying around. They only have an Android charger. You're stuck.
The E.U. would like to stop this type of situation from happening by having a standard and singular charging port for all types of smartphones.
The hope is that this would curb electronic waste, as well as improve the consumer experience.
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"More than 51,000 tonnes of electronic waste per year," happen because of old chargers being thrown out, stated the E.U.'s assessment. This may be reason enough to jump on the E.U.'s bandwagon for a standard charger.
Slow progress on common smartphone charger initiative may get extra EU push: The European Commission is examining if it should push smartphone producers like Apple to collaborate on a single mobile phone charger that would work with all smartphones, due… https://t.co/p1fDDNDv7R pic.twitter.com/kpGZUoX4zl — iLadies (@iladiesme) August 7, 2018
There is a clear and strong ecological argument being made here.
On top of that, the E.U. believes this would also improve the lives of consumers who would no longer have to go out and buy a new charger every time they upgrade their phone.
It's not the first time we hear of the E.U. asking for such a change. Back in 2009 the European Commission had asked for harmonized charging systems. And 2014 saw the European Parliament create a new directive for single charger use.
This could transform Europe's image on twitter -> EU calls for *single* smartphone charger http://t.co/cKs1U31EZR pic.twitter.com/t1MyaA1HNU — Ben Phillips (@benphillips76) March 16, 2014
So far, though, these desires have gone unmet.
Not everyone is on board with this initiative
Apple answered the E.U.'s plea a year ago stating that if the regulation came into place huge amounts of electronic waste would still happen. Given everyone with a smartphone would have to buy the new universal charger they'd have to discard their old ones.
Nearly 1 billion consumers currently use the Apple lightning port. Bearing that in mind, replacing a billion chargers in a short space of time would overload the electronic waste sector, defeating the motive of the directive in the first place.
Furthermore, Apple also mentioned that this move would freeze innovation instead of condoning it.
It's an unresolved issue, and both sides of the argument appear to be sound.
tomaszffffff on January 16th, 2020 at 16:06 UTC »
I’d add to that clear color coding indicating USB-C standard. Now it’s impossible to tell the difference between Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1, 2.0, the ones that allow charging only and so on.
Sectorion on January 16th, 2020 at 14:20 UTC »
Nowadays there are only 2 : Lightning for iPhones and like 95% of androids use USB-C. Everyone is waiting for Apple to introduce USB-C to iPhones for a few years now
Thisbymaster on January 16th, 2020 at 14:03 UTC »
Good, now require the cords to have standards for quality. Most cords you find in stores are crap quality and break after putting them in your pocket.