It is no secret that Apple's iPhone and the myriad Android smartphones all use multiple charging ports on their devices.
But in the interest of safeguarding our ecology, EU regulators are finally moving to ensure this changes very soon, and a common mobile phone charging port is adopted unanimously by the industry.
Reuters
According to Reuters, apparently the EU has reached the end of its line, where it gave several years for the mobile phone industry to come up with a standard cable and charger which could work across different smartphone brands.
Top of the list of concerns for the European Commission is the more than 51,000 tons of electronic waste generated on annual basis when people discard old phone chargers to upgrade to new ones. This also causes inconvenience to consumers, the EU noted.
Reuters
So EU pressurized popular smartphone makers -- 14 of them in total -- including Apple, Samsung, Nokia and Huawei to come up with a voluntary consensus back in 2009 to work on a common phone charging slot and cable. Till date none of the companies have voluntarily come up with a solution to EU's problem.
But where good will fails, force often does the trick -- which is what the EU is hinting towards.?¡°Given the unsatisfactory progress with this voluntary approach, the Commission will shortly launch an impact assessment study to evaluate costs and benefits of different other options,¡± Vestager said in an Aug. 1 response to a query from an EU lawmaker, as quoted by Reuters.
Since USB Type C is the most popular smartphone charging cable and slot, and the most future proof as well, chances are that it will be adopted very soon -- making it mandatory for phones sold in the EU. Which means Apple will have to toe the line as well, discarding its Lightning Port and Connector for the USB Type C.
Reuters
And that may very well be the last thing for the industry to switch to USB Type C cables and charging slots -- getting Apple to the table and making them adopt it. Because as we have seen with the Notch and previous iPhones, whatever iPhone does pretty much becomes the trend of that year for all Android smartphones.
Let's hope for all of us and our environment, that Apple does shift to USB Type C cable and charging port soon. Hopefully, the EU will ensure just that very soon.