Apple will need to comply with European Union (EU) law to switch the iPhone to a USB-C charger, Greg Joswiak, the marketing chief said on Tuesday.
Jiswiak said the company will comply as it does with other laws. He declined to disclose when the iPhone may get the charger to replace lightning. He made the comments at a Wall Street Journal conference in Laguna Beach California.
Apple executives suggested they weren’t particularly happy about the new rules when discussing them on stage at the conference. Originally, Apple believed it had come to a compromise with EU regulators by offering a cord in the box with its iPhones that plugged into USB-C on one end and its proprietary lightning cable on the other.
“We have no choice- as we do around the world, Apple will comply with the laws,” said Jiswiak.
“We think it would’ve been better environmentally and better for our customers to not have a government be that prescriptive.”
A decade ago, when the EU was pushing for micro-USB connectors the firm had a disagreement with them, he said.
While the regulatory body’s aim was to reduce the type of power adaptors consumers were using to make it easier on them, Apple approached the problem differently, he mentioned.
Apple debuted the lightning connector almost 10 years ago and it has been the primary connector for many devices including the iPhone, the iPad, and Airpods. Over the last couple of years, Apple has launched iPads using USB-Cas the primary connector- including the latest baseline iPad.
“We got to a better place which is power adapters with detachable cables. All of them being USB -A or USB-C and you choose the cable which is appropriate for your device. That allowed over a billion people to have that (lightning) connector and to be able to use what they have already and not be disrupted and cause a bunch of e-waste,” Joswiak said.
Apple is planning to switch the iPhone to USB-C next year. The law goes into effect in 2024. Apple has already moved its Macs, many iPads and accessories to USB-C from lightning and other connectors.
Source: CNET, Tech Crunch, CNBC, Tech Central, image from Twitter: @Forbes