If you scroll through your newsfeed this calendar week , you likely saw headline pertain to the European Commission ’s new proposal of marriage to force smartphones and small electronic devices to use USB - degree centigrade for charge . The headline in all probability included Apple or iPhone , because a tech - connect story is much more interesting when it involves the braggart companionship in the world .
On the surface , it would seem thatthe EC ’s proposalis targeted directly at Apple . Under the terms of the proposal of marriage , “ USB - C will become the received port for all smartphones , tablets , cameras , headphones , portable speaker and handheld videogame console ” in the interest of appliance and Es - waste , and the sale of chargers will be “ unbundled ” from the sale of electronic equipment .
Michael Simon / IDG
Apple already abide by with half of the marriage proposal when itstopped admit battery charger with the iPhone 12 . At the same time , itswitched from USB - A to USB - C for its iPhone charger , constitute one end of the courser universal joint . It also now includes a Lightning - to - USB - blow cable in all new iPhone and iPad boxes . Apple take a minute of heat for removing a necessary accessory from the iPhone loge , but everyone quick puzzle over it and now other phone God Almighty are take after Apple ’s hint .
But if you expect Apple to initiate including a USB - C - to - USB - snow charging cable with the next iPhone as it does with iPads and Mac , you ’re plump to be disappointed . The realness is , Lightning is not going anywhere . Not with the iPhone 14 or the iPhone 15 or the iPhone 16 — unless Apple already has plans to switch it out .
Ever since the iPad switched from Lightning to USB - C with the “ all - screen ” update in October 2018 , there has been speculation that the iPhone will travel along wooing . Sometimes the rumors are that they ’ll get USB - C , other times that it will rely solely on wireless charging , but with each new model , the lilliputian port remains . And it ’ll stay that way regardless of what the EU does .
Lightning crashes
As 2022 rolls around , the number of Lightning equipment is shrivel , Other than accessories and earbuds — Magic Mouse and Trackpad , and AirPods , which are n’t included in the proposal of marriage — only theiPhoneandninth - gen iPadhave Lightning ports for charging . And Apple is already moving beyond Lightning for charge . Last twelvemonth , it introduced MagSafe , which is something of a proprietary radiocommunication charging method acting . And of course , iPhones have digest industry - received Qi radio charging for years .
But even if they did n’t , and even if the EU passes the marriage proposal , it will still be years before Apple would theoretically be forced to comply . For one , the proposal involve to go through the usual bureaucratic summons , which involves public debate by Parliament and internal government , then member states may suggest amendments to the proposal , which need to be individually study and approved by the European Commission . There will be debate and pushback , and there are valid literary argument to be made on both sides . On the one deal , a standard charging resolution would decidedly be more convenient ; on the other , it all but eliminates the hypothesis that something good than USB - C could come along . And of grade , it would force millions of Lightning cable in landfills .
MagSafe is the future of iPhone charging .
But lease ’s say that take place before the end of 2022 as the EC “ hopes,”according to the BBC , and the proposal becomes an official directive . Then each single res publica will have two years to reenact a home law and manufacturer will have another two years to comply with the law . That in all probability intend the earliest Apple product that fall under the jurisprudence would be the iPhone 18 in 2026 . And as we know , the wheels of bureaucratism often turn very very slow .
By then , Apple will in all likelihood have moved beyond Lightning and line for the iPhone . Therumors of a portless iPhone certainly come from somewhere , and I have no doubt that Apple does indeed have an iPhone in the works that does n’t have a physical charging port at all , and five years seems like plenty of time to cede it . After all , five long time ago , most models still had a earphone labourer .
So do n’t fret about those headlines you ’re reading . USB - C stool horse sense on the iPad for things like file transfers and external video display . I would n’t be counterbalance to USB - C on the iPad , but the port is just as versatile on the iPhone , just in very different fashion . So all thoseMiFiLightning cables and accessories are n’t move anywhere . And by the fourth dimension Apple moves on , it wo n’t be because it ’s drive , it ’ll be because it ’s quick .
