iPhone 15 Ultra - Well Well Well! How The Turntables

iPhone 15 Ultra - Well Well Well! How The Turntables
3 min read
08 May 2023

With the iPhone 15 lineup, Apple will finally switch to USB-C charging standard from lightning after European Union passed a law and made it mandatory for all OEMs to use USB-C charging standard on their phones, including Apple. This was a huge win for us consumers but not for Apple because Apple makes billions of dollars every year by licensing their lightning port technology to other companies.

Switching to USB-C would mean they will lose all of that easy money. So what Apple did is they found a workaround. Apple decided that they will limit the USC C functionality on the iPhone 15 lineup for cables that are not approved by Apple by including a small chip inside the USB-C port. It means if you have a Samsung cable or any other USB-C cable it will perform poorly, it will charge at a slower rate and also transfer the data at slower speeds. Apple is doing it for two reasons. A. So that you directly buy the USB-C cable from Apple itself And B) If a third-party company wants to make USB-C cables for iPhones, then they first need to join the made-for-iPhone program and pay royalties to Apple. In either case, Apple is making money, just like they were doing with their lightning port tech. This would contradict the entire reason for requiring USB-C as a universal connection, and we were all hoping that the EU would step in and stop this before it officially happens in September, and that's exactly what is happening.

The European Commissioner has sent a letter to Apple, warning them that any attempt to limit the functionality of USB-C cables in iPhones would be prohibited under the EU's upcoming law and would prevent these phones from being sold in the EU. The report also notes that the EU Commission reminded Apple in March that “Devices that do not meet the requirements for the single charger will not be approved on the EU market.” Honestly, I am deeply grateful to the European Union for their efforts to protect us from the chaos of proprietary cables. I wish more countries had similar consumer protection laws to not let companies like Apple to not take advantage of their userbase. I'm glad there is a responsible adult in the room to make sure Apple is held accountable.

Now the problem is the EU legislation that will require this doesn’t go into effect until December 28, 2024, so Apple technically can still put a chip on the USB-C and limit its functionality on the iPhone 15 lineup. But will they remain to be seen? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments.

 

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Den W. 3K
I'm a passionate tech enthusiast who loves diving into the world of software, programming, and tech reviews.
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