Apple is planning to keep the iPhone charging exclusive to its own products, according to a new report. The Cupertino company is looking to create a “wall of chargers” that will only work with Apple products, The Wall Street Journal reports. This move would help keep the iPhone’s battery life up and running longer, as well as make it more difficult for other companies to produce chargers that work with other devices. Apple has been working on this plan for some time now, and it’s likely that it will become a reality in the near future.
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Based on the report, the European Commission will present legislation to set a common charger for mobile phones and other electronic devices in September. That means we won’t have to wait too long to determine whether this ends up becoming a rule in the EU.
According to a study conducted by the European Commission, during 2018, 50-percent of phones in the EU were sold with micro-USB connectors, 29-percent had a USB C connector, and 21-percent had a Lightning connector. However, this study was conducted in 2019 based on 2018 sales, so the number of USB-C phones has likely increased substantially since then.
The idea behind this move is to create a situation where users would be able to use one charger cable regardless of what phone they’re using. The Commission also talked about the environmental benefits of using a single cable across all smartphones.
Apple says that using a single charger would hurt innovation and create a mountain of electronic waste as consumers who own whatever cable they choose to force won’t be able to use them with future devices.
We’ll have to wait until next month to see if this goes through, as both the side of unifying chargers and keeping chargers independent of the government have compelling arguments.
