The EU will impose a common charger for phones by 2024

One door to load them all, one door to combine them. The European Union announced on Tuesday that it will force smartphone makers to use a standard USB-C charging port, ending the ritual of asking around the office until you find someone with the right charger after leaving their own at home. Now there is only resistance from a $ 2,4 trillion megacorporation.

Common charger

The 'common charger' rule is the EU's attempt to kill two birds with one stone. First, the block claims that consumers will save 250 million euros (267 million dollars) per year on "unnecessary purchases of chargers" thanks to standardization, which will also be required for tablets, digital cameras, headphones, game consoles. portable games and e-readers. Secondly, it will be good for the environment, as it will reduce 11.000 tons of waste per year.

Once the standard is approved by the European Parliament as expected, manufacturers will have 24 months to update their devices - laptops will fall under the rules at a later date. Apple (Apple shares - ticker AAPL), which last year sold 56 million iPhones out of a total of 241 million in Europe, argues that the EU has not taken into account how much could be lost in terms of technological progress:

"We continue to fear that strict regulation requiring only one type of connector will stifle innovation rather than encourage it, thereby harming consumers in Europe and around the world," Apple, the only major smartphone maker that has not adopted, told Reuters. the USB-C. However, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the company is already testing iPhones with USB-C ports instead of the proprietary Lightning charger.

The invisible path

“My job is to kill these sea snakes whenever I can,” replied European Commissioner for Industry Thierry Breton. “Every time we come up with a proposal, they start to say 'oh, it's going to be against innovation.' No, it is not against innovation, it is not against anyone ". Breton said the EU will develop a standard to allow the development of new charging technologies.

The new EU rules will not prohibit wireless charging, which is already taking hold in China thanks to Huawei, OnePlus and Xiaomi - even the iPhone 12 is capable of (relatively slow) wireless charging with Apple's Magsafe charger. . Kuo previously said that Apple could directly switch to a portless iPhone, in a move that could be described as USB-CU-L8R.