EU Regulates to have USB-C Chargers for All Smartphones: Apple’s Need to Change

10

October

2021

5/5 (1)

Are your chargers piling up in your drawer? A new rule proposed by the European Commission forces manufacturers to produce a universal charging solution using Type-C USB for small electronic devices such as smartphones. As Apple has been the sole company with the lightning cable, is this a delightful news or a nightmare for them?

New Regulation

On September 23rd, the European Commission (EC) has announced its proposal that all small electronic devices in the EU must have the USB-C charger. Small electronic devices include: Smartphones, tablets, cameras, headphones, portable speakers and handheld video game consoles. Smaller electronic devices such as earbuds, smart-watches and fitness trackers were not considered for technical reasons linked to size and use conditions. This proposal also standardizes the charging speed as USB-C was known for its fast-charging capabilities, which will no longer be a selling point.

Waste Reduction

According to the EC impact assessment in 2019, around half of charging cables sold with a phone were micro-USB, 29% were USB-C and 21% were lightning connectors from Apple. This is already an improvement compared to the 30 different charging cables that were on the market back in 2009. However, the research estimates that around 11,000 tonnes of waste are generated per year from unused charging cables. Therefore, the EC suggests that unbundling the sales of the chargers from the sales of smartphones, and having only one common charging cable for all your devices would lead to less waste production.

Apple’s Response

As we can all imagine, as the innovators of the lightning cable, Apple will be the one to take a big hit. Its response to this new proposal was the following: “We remain concerned that strict regulation mandating just one type of connector stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, which in turn will harm consumers in Europe and around the world.” This is a sound argument from Apple as the investment in charging cables will have to become more of a collective effort between different tech companies. Possibly leading to slower innovation. However, Apple has a clear incentive for refusing the universal charging port. Losing its Made-for-iPhone licencing program will lead to tens of billions of losses.

Does it also encourage innovation?

While Apple says that this regulation proposed by the EC will stifle innovation, it could be said that it will encourage innovation specifically in smartphones. As the charging ports become universal, the switching costs for the customers will decrease. Therefore, the competitors will strive for a more innovative smartphone instead of focusing on competitive chargers.

Apple’s History

In 2009, a voluntary agreement known as a “memorandum of understanding” was reached between different phone companies in order to coalesce around a few universal chargers. This was also signed by Apple. However, it is the development of the iPhone 5 that led Apple to step away from the voluntary agreement. The iPhone 5 had a 12% more compact size than the previous iPhone 4s. Thus, to free up space for the internal components, Apple needed a smaller charging connector than their previous 30-pin connector. The phone companies in the agreement at the time were developing the next generation USB-C, but it was only expected to be completed in 2014. Therefore, Apple had to decide whether they would sacrifice the compact design of the iPhone 5, or they could create their own connectors and cause fragmentation not only in the smartphone industry but also within their product ecosystem. Finally, Apple decided to implement the latter, causing huge amounts of backlash from users in 2012, who were frustrated that the previous accessories were now obsolete. After such backlash, Apple did not want to implement another change in their accessories with the USB-C connectors in 2014. It decided to continue using the lightning cable for as long as possible, and implement it into other Apple products such as the Air Pods.

Was it beneficial for Apple?

Apple is able to change their connectors now without receiving too much backlash from its users as this was a regulation proposed by the EC. Therefore, in a way, the EC has helped Apple to change back to its original strategy to have a universal connector amongst all phone companies.

Conclusion and Future Prediction

With this new proposed regulation, the EC is trying to reduce E-waste and trying to move towards to a society in which we consume differently. Smarter and less. This change may lead to initial significant costs for Apple, however, these might be lower than expected. Firstly, until the regulation is set in place and all Apple products with lightning connectors become obsolete, consumers will still be buying lightning cables. Furthermore, Apple has already made plans to implement magnetic wireless charging ports, thus, the future iPhones might not even have a charging port and will be completely wireless. As always, regulation and policy lag behind innovation, however, this regulation could accelerate the move towards wireless charging and a more coherent smartphone industry.

Sources:

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_4613

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58665809

https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/23/22626723/eu-commission-universal-charger-usb-c-micro-lightning-connector-smartphones

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2291448-usb-c-chargers-will-eu-law-cut-down-on-e-waste-or-just-anger-apple/

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/23/eu-plans-to-make-usb-c-mandatory-for-apple-iphones-and-other-devices.html

Please rate this

Post-Coronavirus World: A Contactless Interface — to Touch it without Touching

24

September

2021

No ratings yet.

COVID-19 has had an immense impact on how we live and in order to adapt to this new lifestyle we had to find new solutions. For example: are you more aware of what you are touching and of the countless other people that have also touched it? What if you were able to touch those things without having to physically touch them anymore? Something like a holographic touch screen!

The Change in Perceptions

COVID-19 has made us hyper-aware of every touchable surface that could transmit the disease. We have seen extra caution exercised when coming to contact with commonly shared public items such as door handles, self-service touch screens and elevator buttons. Thus, one way to solve this is by having a contactless interface.

The Innovative Technology

Murakami Corporation, a Japanese company in the automobile-business creating rear view mirrors, has developed a new technology called Floating Pictogram Technology in collaboration with Parity Innovations, a fellow Japanese technology development-focused venture company. It is a contactless interface system using the combination of the “air-floating image” optical technology and the spatial sensing technology that uses infrared sensors. The users could simply hover their fingers on the floating image of a button and they would easily be able to insert commands and data without the need of having physical contact.

For now, Murakami Corporation is focused on using the technology to upgrade the high-tech Japanese toilets with sample devices already being provided. Furthermore, the company expects to be able to mass-produce the panels in early 2022. Murakami corporation also aspires to implement this technology to ATMs, elevators and hospitals.

Other Practical Applications

There are other companies also working on these kinds of sci-fi, futuristic contactless interfaces and we can definitely see a potential for other practical applications of this technology:

  • Surgeons can use this in order to lower the risk of contaminating their hands during surgery.
  • Electronic items that cannot handle water such as laptops, so you will be able to use it with wet hands or while taking baths.
  • Touch screen panels that have a hard time recognising wet/dirty hands or hands with gloves on.
  • Self-service touch screens such as in Albert Heijn, so you will be able to actually complete the contactless payment without any physical contact.
  • Buttons to open electronic doors such as on trains.

Limitation

Sadly, this new technology does not make life easier for everyone. As this is an innovation on the optical technology side, it uses visual feedback for operations. This means that people that are visually impaired will not be able to utilise this new technology. They are restricted to making use of other senses such as touch and sound for operations or simply have someone else do it. New technologies always come with new possible challenges but if you are careful, you can make sure it does not make the world less safe in its process.

Sources:

https://jref.com/threads/floating-pictogram-technology.233704/

http://www.nelson-miller.com/holographic-touchscreens-are-they-worth-it/

https://geekimpulse.com/pictogram-floating-technology-is-making/

https://japantoday.com/category/features/new-products/japanese-company-develops-%27floating-image%27-no-touch-touch-panels-to-avoid-direct-button-contact

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/193032-haptic-holographic-display-turns-thin-air-into-a-touchscreen

https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/japanese-companies-are-making-holographic-touchscreens-a-reality-during-coronavirus-080320

https://www.axiomtek.com/Default.aspx?MenuId=Solutions&FunctionId=SolutionView&ItemId=2273&Title=Touchscreen+Hygiene+in+a+Post-COVID-19+World

https://www.ultraleap.com/company/news/blog/touch-screen-kiosks/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2020/04/03/9-future-predictions-for-a-post-coronavirus-world/?subId3=xid%3Afr1585940496755adh#4eb0fbde5410

Please rate this