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EU pushing Apple to change its phone ports to USB-C

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Despite slowly removing accessories and ports from its devices straight out of the box, Apple could soon be forced to change all its iPhone ports to USB-C to reduce their overall environmental impact.

Anyone who’s purchased an iPhone in the last few years (which is, statistically, probably most of us) will have noticed that the box contains less accessories than it used to.

Apple no longer includes a charger brick or headphones as standard, instead selling each item separately in order to ‘improve’ its carbon footprint and excessive e-waste problem.

While that sounds great in theory, it feels somewhat disingenuous given that Apple profits from forcing customers to fork out more cash for items they used to receive as part of the iPhone entry price.

It’s all the more frustrating when you consider that charging cables, earbuds, and any other wired accessory can’t be used on anything but Apple products. Your mum’s universal charger for her Android will never work on an iPhone.

Now, the EU is pushing for Apple to stick to its apparent concerns for the climate by removing the lightning cable port on its products and replacing it with a standard USB-C.

This would mean that most chargers and accessories could now work with iPhone or iPad and, crucially, consumers wouldn’t be roped into buying a bucket load of Apple gadgets that can’t be used on anything else.

Announced in a press release, the EU plans to make USB-C the standard universal charger on all devices, in a deliberate attempt to minimise e-waste. It calls out companies that create ‘incompatible chargers’ and wants to force manufacturers to sell devices without bundled chargers. Additionally, fast charging must become standard to avoid manufacturers offering ‘higher tier’ products by artificially limiting the speed of regular USB-C chargers.

While it still needs to pass a vote, the European Parliament has already said it’s in favour of the idea of standardised chargers, meaning it is very likely that the USB-C standard will be approved.

Apple hasn’t yet commented or responded, though given its track record of being stubborn and anti-consumer with convenience, it is unlikely that it’ll be too happy with these plans. The company usually wants its customers to be looped into the eco-system without any foreign products or items mixing with Apple ones.

We’ll have to see what happens, though it could be the case that the newly announced iPhone 13 may be one of the last to use the lightning cable. Soon we shall all be living in a USB-C eutopia, where a single charger can be used on absolutely everything.

That’s good news for the environment, e-waste stats, and our wallets. Just pray you don’t lose or break your current chargers, eh?

Editor In Chief London, UK

I’m Charlie (He/Him), the Editor In Chief at Thred. I studied English at the University of Birmingham and as a music and gaming enthusiast, I’m a nerd for pop culture. You can find me curating playlists, designing article headline images, and sipping cider on a Thursday. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.

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