How do you evaluate the EU’s unified charging interface?

Nowadays, there are more and more electronic devices, and almost everyone has several different devices. However, the charging interfaces of different manufacturers are not completely unified. For example, the charging cables of Android and Apple mobile phones are not universal, which makes me, a "two-tool player", very distressed.

But according to the latest news from foreign media, the EU legislature recently passed a resolution by 582 votes to 40, formally passing a bill to unify the standards for charging heads and announcing that it will be officially implemented in July this year.

According to the European Parliament, there is now “urgent need for EU regulatory action to reduce e-waste, empower consumers to make sustainable choices and allow them to fully participate in an efficient and well-functioning internal market.”

It sounds good, but is it really that simple?

The "unified charging head" has a long history

According to foreign media reports, for more than ten years, the European Commission has been committed to developing a universal charger or charging port. As early as 2009, they convened the four major smartphone manufacturers - Apple, Samsung Electronics, Huawei and Nokia, and facilitated the four companies to sign a voluntary memorandum of understanding to use a unified mobile phone charging port starting in 2011.

However, since this is not a mandatory requirement and has a direct impact and conflict with the interests of various companies, there are still different models of charging ports to this day.

Currently, smartphone charger interfaces are divided into two categories: the Lightning connector used by Apple and the micro USB or USB Type-C used by the Android camp.

Given that the Type-C interface is about to unify the Android battlefield and its advantages are becoming more and more obvious, the Lightning charging port of Apple devices is the main target of the EU plan.

Why and on what basis does Apple object?

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Last week, Apple once again publicly opposed the EU's plan to unify mobile phone charging ports. Apple said that unifying charging ports would inhibit technological innovation, harm the interests of European consumers, and damage the European economy.

But the reason behind it must be closely related to business.

If the EU forces Apple phones to use a unified charging port, it means that Apple's smartphones sold around the world may switch to the USB-C interface and abandon the lightning interface. As Apple users know, Apple's charging cables have built-in MFi certification chips, which require Apple's authorization and certification before they can charge the iPhone. Through this authorization method, users only have two choices: "buy Apple's cable" or "buy Apple-authorized third-party cables."

In Apple's fourth quarter earnings analyst conference call last year, Apple CEO Cook said that there are more than 1.5 billion active iOS devices in use worldwide, a large portion of which - most likely more than 900 million - are Apple phones. These phones all use the lightning charging port, which can also transmit data.

If it is mandatory to use the most popular Type-C interface, Apple will certainly stand up and oppose it.

Another reason why Apple opposes the EU's unified charging interface is that it believes that a one-size-fits-all mandatory standard will stifle companies' technological innovation in this area.

After the unified standards, if Apple, Intel, Lenovo or Huawei and other manufacturers develop a technology that is better than the "EU standard" in the future, but cannot use it in products sold in Europe due to policy restrictions, then this will not only harm the interests of consumers, but also suppress the technological progress of the industry. After all, the promotion of products still needs to be tested in the market.

Why does the EU insist? Can it be achieved this time?

One of the reasons why Europe insists on doing so is very similar to Apple's point of view.

It was pointed out at the meeting that some smartphones have launched wireless charging functions in the past few years. However, wireless charging has encountered the problem of incompatible technical standards. Several technical alliances have emerged on the market, and charging devices are not compatible with each other. Incompatible technical standards have also hindered the advancement of charging technology, and user experience has improved slowly.

Another purpose is to reduce electronic waste.

Relevant data shows that in 2016, Europe generated 12.3 million tons of electronic waste, equivalent to an average of 16.6 kilograms per resident. The conference pointed out that a unified charger can reduce a considerable burden of electronic waste.

But many things are easier said than done.

One problem with this decision is that even if it is implemented by the EU, they can neither require all electronic products to be equipped with high-cost fast charging solutions of 65W or even 100W, nor can they rigidly require manufacturers who have already done a good job to reduce or affect the charging power of their products for the sake of "compatibility".

In this way, although on the surface everyone's charging heads can be mixed, in reality, for the general consumers, it is still impossible to mix charging heads between any electronic devices. This will also make the significance of the "unified standard" at this stage questionable.

However, a source recently revealed that Apple is planning to switch to the Type-C interface in future products. John Ternus, Apple's vice president of hardware engineering, listed the many benefits of this interface in a public event:

“A high-performance computer deserves a high-performance port, so in the new iPad Pro, we’re moving to USB-C, which brings new capabilities to iPad Pro, such as the ability to connect to cameras, musical instruments, or even docks, or connect to high-resolution external displays up to 5K, changing the way you use iPad.”

Conclusion

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Although the EU seems to be inevitable this time, and the unification will indeed bring us many benefits. However, from the perspective of technology and policy, it is still difficult, and from the perspective of users, the benefits will not be felt for a while...

But this does not prevent us from making a beautiful prospect in advance: in the future, we no longer have to bring our own data cables. After all, as long as our colleagues have them, we can borrow them. We no longer have to worry about different brands and different sockets. Isn’t this wonderful?

What do you think about this? Do you think it is meaningful to unify the charging interface? What impact will it have on us?