Apple confirms the iPhone is getting USB-C, however isn’t comfortable in regards to the cause why

Apple has given its most direct affirmation but {that a} USB-C-equipped iPhone is coming now that the European Union is mandating that each one telephones offered in its member nations use the connector if they’ve a bodily charger. When requested by The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern if the corporate could be changing Lighting, Apple advertising lead Greg Joswiak answered by saying: “obviously we’ll have to comply, we have no choice.”

Stern introduced the legislation up throughout a chat with Joswiak and software program VP Craig Federighi on the WSJ’s Tech Live convention, and adopted up by asking once we may anticipate to see USB-C on an iPhone. Joswiak replied by saying that “the Europeans are the ones dictating timing for European customers.” Currently, the law dictates that “all mobile phones and tablets” should use USB-C by “autumn 2024.” Joswiak refused to reply whether or not the corporate would come with the connector on telephones offered exterior the EU.

But he made it abundantly clear that Apple isn’t comfortable in regards to the change. Before confirming that the corporate plans to adjust to the legislation, Joswiak went into an extended rationalization about how the corporate prefers to go its personal manner reasonably than being pressured into adopting {hardware} requirements by lawmakers. He cited examples round micro-USB and listening to help compliance as conditions the place Apple has been pushed to satisfy ill-considered necessities.

He additionally prompt that charging bricks with removable cables have principally solved the difficulty of standardization, and claimed that switching the iPhone to Lightning to USB-C would trigger numerous e-waste. (Personally I don’t discover this argument compelling; I’ve to switch most of my Lightning cables each few years in any case, at across the identical cadence I purchase new telephones, as a result of they put on out or get chewed on by cats.)

Still, it’s telling what wasn’t talked about: a portless iPhone that depends solely on wi-fi charging, one thing that may theoretically be allowed. Joswiak didn’t say that the corporate was weighing its choices, or contemplating if there have been methods it may get round the necessity to put USB-C on the iPhone. Instead, we received a resigned, barely winding reply that result in what looks as if an inevitable conclusion: USB-C is the long run port for connecting to and charging your iPhone.