The introduction of USB Type-C as the only interface for charging device batteries in the European Union has been interpreted by many as a stick to the community subject Manzanaand the company appears to have responded to that effect after Greg Joswiak, the Cupertino giant’s chief marketing officer, made it clear that he would reluctantly comply with the law.
In response to questions at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference, Greg Joswiak, accompanied by Craig Federighi, said that “of course we will have to comply, we have no choice“. In addition, Joswiak also expressed that Apple believes “that it would be better for the environment and better for our customers if the government wasn’t so prescriptive“.
Everyone else uses “USB-A or USB-C and choose the cable that is suitable for your device. It allowed over a billion people had this connector (Lightning) and could use what they already had and not be disturbed and cause a lot of e-waste“. This has been interpreted by more than one as a claim that the introduction of USB Type-C will generate e-waste.
Other responses from Greg Joswiak were that “Europeans are the ones who dictate time to European customers” and recalled in his own words that European Union law stipulated that all smartphones, tablets and other rechargeable electronic products must use USB Type-C for “autumn 2024“. In addition, he noted that chargers that allow cable replacement are already contributing to standardization.
Looking at Joswiak’s responses to The Wall Street Journal, it’s clear that Apple should be more self-critical about this than showing frustration, because to begin with non-compliance on your part is a contributing factor to waste due to lack of compatibility and interoperability between components and tags. This is also where the debate about whether electronic devices should have a charger or not comes into play.it is more visible that the USB has made it possible to use, for example, the Motorola fast charger with a Xiaomi smartphone (the case of this server, which uses the Moto G7 Power charger for its current Poco X3 Pro).
Apple, seeing that USB could be imposed, moved the chips to accept it as an interface for the iPhone, but it can be seen that the implementation by the European Union was not very good. On the other hand, it’s interesting to see that the company, at least apparently, doesn’t seem to be that concerned that China is demanding the removal of VPNs to comply with regulations that violate human rights and have no legal guarantees.
