The establishment in the European Union of the USB Type-C as the only interface to recharge the batteries of the devices has been interpreted by many as a stick of the community entity to Manzanaand it seems that the company has reacted in that sense after Greg Joswiak, head of marketing for the Cupertino giant, has apparently made it clear that they will reluctantly comply with the law.
When asked questions at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference, Greg Joswiak, accompanied by Craig Federighi, responded that “obviously we will have to comply, we have no choice”. In addition to that, Joswiak has also expressed that Apple believes “that it would have been better for the environment and better for our customers if a government was not so prescriptive”.
Everyone else uses “USB-A or USB-C and you choose the cable that is appropriate for your device. That allowed more than a billion people had that connector (Lightning) and could use what they already had and not be interrupted and cause a lot of electronic waste”. This has been interpreted by more than one as a claim that the imposition of USB Type-C will generate electronic waste.
Other answers from Greg Joswiak were that “Europeans are the ones who dictate the time for European customers” and recalled, in his words, that European Union law has established that all smartphones, tablets and other rechargeable electronic products must use USB Type-C for “fall 2024”. In addition, he has commented that chargers that allow changing the cable were already contributing to standardization.
Looking at Joswiak’s responses to The Wall Street Journal, it’s obvious that Apple should be more self-critical in this regard rather than showing frustration, because to begin with non-compliance with standards on your part is a contributing factor to waste due to lack of compatibility and interoperability between components and brands. This is also where the debate on whether or not electronic devices should have a charger comes into play.more seeing that the USB has made it possible to use, for example, a Motorola fast charger with a Xiaomi smartphone (case of this server, which uses the charger of a Moto G7 Power for its current Poco X3 Pro).
Apple, seeing that the USB could end up imposed, has been moving chips to adopt it as an interface for the iPhone, but it is seen that the imposition by the European Union has not been very good. On the other hand, it is curious to see that the company, at least on the surface, does not seem to bother so much that China demands the removal of VPNs to comply with regulations contrary to human rights and without legal guarantees.
