[sjwright]

A poor argument since iPhone uses, and has always used industry standard USB-A on the "wall" side.

I really don't understand what the EU is complaining about. I'm not aware of a single smartphone that doesn't charge over USB. Or do they really have stick up their bum about both ends of the cable?

[michaelt]

  I really don't understand what the EU is
  complaining about. I'm not aware of a single
  smartphone that doesn't charge over USB.

You know why that is? Because in 2009, the EU told them to [1].

The fact you're not aware of a single smartphone that doesn't charge over USB is, in fact, a major success for the EU bossing phone manufacturers around!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply

[sjwright]

That's basically a lie; the industry was already unifying around USB charging because it's so cheap to implement and reduces the part count.

(To the extent the EU did anything right, they correctly predicted the future, which is I suppose fairly impressive.)

[michaelt]

If the market was going to give us USB chargers anyway, why do cheap phones which are excluded from Common EPS rules, like the Samsung E1200, often not use USB chargers?

[sjwright]

So again, they correctly predicted that dirt cheap shit with internal electronics designed more than fifteen years ago will continue to be dirt cheap shit today. Wow, the EU is amazing.

What's their next trick? Banning spinning hard disks from laptops? Forcing all consumer grade digital cameras to use SD cards?

[jhasse]

Having multiple connectors on the phone side results in more cables, more waste.

[sjwright]

A valid argument if USB cables were durable in the hands of the typical ham-fisted end user... AND if the EU forced all phone makers to stop bundling USB cables and chargers with every phone.

I mean this is pure hypocrisy; the EU couldn't even standardise wall sockets. What next, are they going to force all mains devices to use the IEC C14 socket? Perhaps they should levy a steep tax on all aftermarket USB cables?

[jhasse]

> AND if the EU forced all phone makers to stop bundling USB cables and chargers with every phone.

If all bundled cables were the same, people could reuse them more often.

[sjwright]

Surely forcing change will cause more wasted cables than maintaining the status quo.

Plus Apple uses lightning in many more products than the iPhone; so unless they're going to force companies to standardise on cables for charging set top box remote controls (for example) then it's not going to have the desired effect long term.

[jhasse]

> Surely forcing change will cause more wasted cables than maintaining the status quo.

Not in the long run.

[sjwright]

While we're at it, let's ban Displayport and force everyone to use HDMI. Oh, and all headphones must now connect over USB-C, as 3.5mm TRS is banned too.

[jhasse]

HDMI, Displayport and 3.5mm TRS will all be replaced by USB-C at some point. It's a little too earlier to force it though.