EU wants to obligate electronics manufacturers to use USB Type-C in smaller devices, including Apple

[Redaktion]

The European Union has been working for years to create a single standard port for all small electronic devices. Now, the European Commission has proposed the Radio Equipment Directive, which would force all companies to include USB Type-C ports in smartphones, tablets, headphones, portable speakers, digital cameras and handheld games consoles. All devices must support at least 25 W charging too, but with no charger in the box.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/EU-wants-to-obligate-electronics-manufacturers-to-use-USB-Type-C-in-smaller-devices-including-Apple.564349.0.html

[some thoughts]

and what about ports of laptops, no limitations regarding using usb-a, ...

lightning connector has the advantage over usb-c in that the connector itself has rounded edges, therefore easier to connect to a port; as for the rest usb-c is fine

[_MT_]

Of course it can limit innovation. For one, physical properties of a connector play a role. And even if you could work around the physical limitations, interoperability is a problem. As we all know, not all USB-C cables are created equal. There are also multiple charging standards. Of course, PD being obvious choice. It might not be a big deal for phones, but we might see laptops eventually moving away (that is if they ever fully adopt it in the first place). As they might need more power and higher throughputs than USB-C can deliver.

I never truly understood this. When I sell a device, I sell it with the charger. I don't keep it. And if an old device dies, I don't want to be relying on an old charger. Especially as third party chargers are often of poor quality that can't bear comparison to the first party chargers. The cheap crap from China is sometimes downright dangerous and shouldn't be connected to the grid at all. In the end, it means more work and more money (as the devices won't get any cheaper, savings will go straight to the bottom line). There is something to be said for the "everything you need included" approach. Even if it's wasteful. Sure, I'm not exactly an average consumer. My devices tend to last and I tend to keep them.

[vertigo]

I'm torn on this. I feel like something should be done, but at the same time I'm not sure it's the government's place to regulate this sort of thing, both due to limiting innovation (yes, the companies are really only concerned about the effect on them and their profits, not about innovation, but innovation may still suffer as a result) and because it should be left up to the market to sort it out. At the very least, I do think they're going too far with it, and shouldn't limit it to just a single connection, but maybe to comparable connections. In other words, no micro-USB because it's outdated and clearly inferior in every way to USB-C, but Lightning connections aren't, and so should still be allowed. Besides, Apple users tend to use all Apple devices, so they're still going to have compatibility between their different devices. Also, is 25W charging really going to be required even for devices with smaller batteries, where such fast charging might not even be necessary, safe, or feasible? Should a BT earpiece really be required to charge at 25W?