The question to ask is this: if this law were already in place, would Apple (or any manufacturer) ever innovate something like Lightning or the magnetic mac chargers, given that they then also have to support the common standard, putting them at a significant cost disadvantage?
This kind of regulation, while arguably well-meaning, always seems to end up distorting market forces and discouraging innovation.
I tend to agree, given my small-l libertarian tendencies and my preference for letting people do whatever they want unless it hurts others. On the other hand, there are already scads of standards (including ones that essentially say you-must-do-it-exactly-like-this) for consumer products. And it's hard to see why it's a very big imposition to standardize the DC power supplies, if the AC power supplies are standardized. The EU has shown that they are not inflexible with these standards, as they let the micro-USB standard expire and let people comply by shipping adapters. The interoperability might be worth it; we don't miss having 10 AC outlet types in our house for different brands of appliances.
At the end of the day it's all about interfaces and we should, as much as possible, decouple the interfaces from the house and from the appliances.
What I would love to see insofar as wall outlets is an adjustment of the current standard wall box and outlet+plate so that you could quickly replace the entire wall place in one go very quickly. With that innovation I would love to see the same on the appliance end where it is trivial to replace the entire code on an appliance. This already exists with IEC320, but if would be nice if everything used IEC320.
Then every 5-10 years the industry innovates to dramatically improve one end and then 5-10 years later works to dramatically improve the other end. This would give a very reasonabe 10-20 years between completely replacing all the appliances (or using adapters or switching neither), and 10-20 years between replacing all the wall plates. You wouldn't even necessarily have to upgrade every 10-20. If an appliance is working fine on an old appliance to cord standard or a cord to wall standard, you can leave things alone.
It was this interface approach that allowed Apple to have one dock connector for the longest time but many different shaped devices, since all that had to be done is replace the plastic dock insert [0].
This approach wouldn't work for cellphones and laptops, but should work swimmingly for 120v mains since space isn't at a premium except in the appliance.
But the argument for creating this law is that letting people do whatever they want does hurt others, and that limiting it can prevent or soften the tragedy of the commons.
i'd argue that there are things that make a lot of sense being standardised. think about power outlets [0] on the wall. if you have ever been to a country using different power outlets, you know what i mean. wouldn't it be awesome if every country were to use IEC 60906, as it was envisioned in 1986 [1]?? I'd argue that power supply and perhaps also wired communication (ethernet cables, anyone) are prime examples where standardisation is very benificial.
In Europe Apple provides you an option to buy this [1] device, which would make their devices compliant (as this has not been mandatory). Under new regulartion they could just bundle them.
Well, I haven't received any micro usb adapter in the iPhone 5s package (just the standard lightning to usb cable). I think it's just a recommendation, not a law.
I don't understand this. It's pretty much standardised on micro-usb anyway. Any enforcement of this is just going to be a pain as better technologies arise (USB type C).
It is standardized because in 2009 the EU told them to either sign an agreement to do it, or have a law to force them [1]
They signed, but most refused to extend beyond 2012 (partly because they saw apple not really playing game), so here come the law. As long as I can keep a single cable to charge everything, I'm happy.
> The Common EPS Memorandum of Understanding expired at the end of 2012. The European Commission reported that all of the MoU signatories, "have met their obligations under the MoU," but that most of the signatories declined an EC request to extend the MoU beyond 2012
Ugh no thanks. Lightning is orders of magnitude superior to other current solutions (except cost). If it came to the point where this was actually enforced, I bet Apple would just pay the fines it receives and just continues to use Lightning.
The upcoming USB standard connector is apparently going to adapt and extend most of the nice features of Lightning. There is a nice article on appleinsider about it [1].
I'll bet that the new EU standard adapts that, rather than enshrining some current solution. In fact, the sort-of-non-mandatory previous EU standard (which was micro-USB) was allowed to expire, since they were working on the next one.
As for whether this is possible - yes, it's certainly possible to require compliance with a certain standard as part of product certification for marketing in the EU. To what extent they want to make it mandatory (extra fees, or outright requirement if you want to market in the EU) - we'll see.
Except it won't be here for 2+ years and no one has even seen a doodle of what it looks like. Right now, it's basically vaporware.
I do find this odd though. I thought everyone else had standardized on USB-micro because of a previous dictate by the EU. I'm not sure why they're doing it again.
The previous standardisation was based on an agreement, not a law [1]
As for why a law now when it worked without it until now
> "The Common EPS Memorandum of Understanding expired at the end of 2012. The European Commission reported that all of the MoU signatories, "have met their obligations under the MoU," but that most of the signatories declined an EC request to extend the MoU beyond 2012"
USB 3.0 is not an order of magnitude inferior to Lightning. As I understand it, the primary reason Lightning was chosen over micro USB was simply that the iPad needs more power than micro USB is specified to provide. That kind of thing can be resolved in the two years we have before this has to go into effect.
I'm always on the side of standard connections. Which is one of several reasons I never choose Apple products. Having it imposed by law feels vaguely wrong, but Apple's behavior (on this front, and several others) also feels vaguely wrong to me.
>USB 3.0 is not an order of magnitude inferior to Lightning.
USB 3.0 micro plug is order of magnitude inferior to Lightning in arguably the most important part - experience of plugging and unplugging, which you'll do at least twice a day.
Until we can survive on wireless power, I'll take reversible Lightning over that ridiculous oversized Micro-B USB 3.0 (even the name is ridiculous) plug any day.
> As I understand it, the primary reason Lightning was chosen over micro USB was simply that the iPad needs more power than micro USB is specified to provide.
I don't think that's the case. First, they were coming off the older 30-pin dock connector. Second, the connector needs to do far more than just syncing and charging. It's also used for video out, audio out, sensor input, and who knows what other future updates. Apple designed Lightning to be very flexible for future use.
Honestly I don't believe that if USB 3 was more common Apple would have gone with it.
Just like AirPrint (IPP), AirPlay (DLNA), AirDrop (Bluetooth/OBEX), Facetime etc...
Basically as usual, it's Apple and everyone else.
I'll stick with my USB charger thanks as it is 100% ubiquitous as I will my Internet Printing Protocol, DLNA (which doesn't even require an Apple box to talk to my TV!) and bluetooth that works properly across all devices I've encountered.
Edit to add: I have 3 Lightning iPads in my house (none are mine personally). The male connectors aren't durable - two dead ones so far. I'm not sure about the sockets either which are way more expensive to replace.
So stick with whatever you want, but what gives you the right to demand that by law, Apple must support your preferred charger configuration? If you don't like what Apple has to offer, vote with your wallet and choose a different vendor.
I think it's a good thing, to avoid the rampant NIH-ism and vendor lock-in which seems to permeate the industry.
Sony is a good example - look at their MiniDisc fiasco (I owned several MiniDisc devices), or their MemoryStick format.
Just use a open format like SD, and stick to it.
Or look at every single phone manufacturer back in the early 2000's, that had to invent their own (usually) inferior charging standard, in some misguided hope you'd stick with them due to all the chargers you'd bought.
Or the proliferation of laptop charging standards/pins.
Guys - we're delivering power to a portable devices - it's not like we're designing the bloody ISS.
Yes, I can admire the engineering that goes into say, the Lightning adapter being reversible.
But look at all the ridiculousness of Apple's previous 30-pin connector. They could have just used USB. But then the Apple fans goes "But...but....you can't use TV out!". Yeah, well, the Samsung Galaxy II and MHL would disagree with you.
And look at their MagSafe versus MagSafe 2 connectors - they had to change their entire adapter and make it incompatible just to make it what, 2mm thinner?
And even though I don't own an iDevices, I think it's absurd that Apple charges "licensing" fees to use it's connector, and needs to add in "authentication" chips. Really?
This is as bad as inkjet manufacturers like Lexmark putting in authentication chips to their ink catridges.
I did. Which is why I have a Nokia Lumia 820 (which charges via USB or wireless charger).
It's not about preferred configuration. It's about not producing tonnes of electronic waste by having to require an unreasonable magnitude of charger and device configurations.
Are you talking about first party connectors? We have projects in rural primary schools in Malawi and are yet to have single cable failure with our dozens of lightning iPads there.
I've yet to see a broken lightning connector personally of the 20-30 devices I've seen/used, but I can't say the same of USB. There are sample descrepencies of course, as USB has been around long, but saying the Lightning connector isn't durable is pretty much flat out the opposite opinion of most impressions/experiences, and sounds more like a paid spam-pinion without evidence supporting any specific issues.
The connector is durable but the cable leading up to it isn't. I can of course only speak anecdotally, but I've gone through 4 lightning cables in a year and a half, the kicker being that they're not by any measure cheap (AUD$25). My first one took less than a week to become unusable.
The cable itself is a whole nother story(and actually shared between the 30 pin.). Your post implies the connector sucks, when infact its probably one of the best connectors I have ever seen IMO.
I've literally handled hundreds of second-hand iPads (I traded them for a while), and none of the lightning cables had issues. I'd venture to guess there's something wrong in your house rather than the with the cables.
I've seen tons of dock connector issues with broken ports, but none with lightning so far.
The problem is that a very versatile connector (lightning or usb) is also used to make something as trivial as charging a battery. The UE rightfully wishes to standardize the battery charging part only but that means either adopting a standard connector which would be a regression for some constructors or split the functionnalities in a transparent way from the user POV.
It's not exactly clear but I assume this means they'll have to provide some sort of converter to Micro USB or whatever? It's a great idea to have a common connector, but Apple aren't going to use the same as everyone else and everyone else seems to be compatible now anyway. It looks like the end result might just be iOS stuff costs a bit more and governments get some more tax money from a ridiculously marked up converter.
Maybe I'm the one who's missing something here, but why is everyone so obsessed with the Lightning connector Apple uses? As far as I understand it, the proposed legislation is about universal chargers, not universal cables, and isn't intended to promote interoperability between phones from different manufacturers, but to limit the environmental impact of replacing the charger every time you switch phones.
Last time I checked you can plug the USB side of the Lightning connector to any USB charger and vice versa, I'm pretty sure you can use the Apple charger to charge anything that also charges from a USB port. Seems to me that Apple would already be in compliance...
That doesn't make sense, since it would mean manufacturers would not be able to provide any kind of connector on their devices that provides more than just USB and charging, which I cannot imagine to be true.
If an adapter that goes from [whatever port is on the device] to micro-USB would be enough to be compliant with the proposed legislation, Apple is already in compliance, because not only do they sell such an adapter already, the charger end of their Lightning cable also has a standard USB connector (which means it effectively is a Lightning-to-USB adapter itself).
I know the EU already talked about standard chargers for mobile phones even before the iPhone existed, because back then every phone used to have a non-standard charger plus attached, non-removable cable. The whole idea behind the legislation was that the charger got useless the moment you lost or replaced your phone, so lots of them ended up on landfills. Mandating a common charger would allow selling phones without a charger, and re-using old chargers with different phones.
Unless you can quote the exact bits of the proposed rules that say 'any mobile device will have a micro-USB port' (or whatever port would be considered even more 'standard'), I'm going to assume everyone is just getting all worked up about nothing again, because "OMG iPhone does not have micro-USB, make them add it!".
I think that already existed for years, and Apple is pretty much the only one in Europe who offers an adapter for their charger, while everyone else uses micro-USB.
So I may be wrong, but I think this is about actually forcing Apple to provide micro-USB directly.
The EU is too large a market for Apple to give up, and the EU will keep products from the market, if needed.
Apple will move, if pressed hard enough. I also think economies of scale will force the world to follow what the EU proscribes, just as the EU's lead free soldering requirements changed soldering (almost) everywhere, and just like California's emission guidelines affect cars (almost) everywhere.
Standardization seems like a good idea but I'm not sure if I'm ok with the government forcing a single standard. Maybe another idea would be to tax non-compliant chargers, so they could still be legal, but have an incentive to comply to the standard. Or remove patents on chargers so there isn't any incentive to force consumers to buy your brand of charger, you might as well just comply with the standard. Or allow permits for non-compliant chargers if they can give a good justification for doing it.
Yeah, so maybe governments should stop setting rules about right- and left-hand traffic? Private sector will be so much better on establishing non government standards... For example Trucks (for British people Lorries) will user right-handed traffic rules, and normal cars will user left-hand traffic rules. Market will decide what is better....
As we can see market standard for charges was "every company has its own standards, and charge customers more", after UE and China decided ruled at created regulations for charges it was short time and every (except one) producers started to support microUSB/minuUSB as standard. Strange, don't you think? ;-)
This is a ridiculous argument. Traffic rules can lead to death and it's literally not possible for there to be multiple standards. Having a different charger for your device is not dangerous nor impossible.
Additionally, I said in my comment that maybe the government should regulate it, I just proposed alternatives that would allow for some reasonable exceptions.
I remember that too, but I don't think that's how it will go down in this case. A mandatory EU standard has such tremendous weight that it will force a huge share of the market to comply. If the standard is actually any good, there will be no point in not complying with it in other markets. There is already a semi-mandatory EU requirement for micro-USB chargers which has reduced the number of cables that I need. If they standardize on the Lightning-like reversible next-generation USB (which is close to standardization, and looks good), then that's going to be the next universal connector.
The USB type C connector is currently under development (slim form factor and reversible), Apple should just make the effort to ensure it's compatible with the Lightning connector, e.g. license the design. Problem solved.
Maybe they'll force manufacturers to use that hideous new USB 3.0 Micro-B standard. Personally, I'd much rather use a great connector designed by someone at Apple (such as Lightning, MagSafe, etc.) than one chosen by a bureaucrat.
This kind of regulation, while arguably well-meaning, always seems to end up distorting market forces and discouraging innovation.