[mcintyre1994]

It's not exactly clear but I assume this means they'll have to provide some sort of converter to Micro USB or whatever? It's a great idea to have a common connector, but Apple aren't going to use the same as everyone else and everyone else seems to be compatible now anyway. It looks like the end result might just be iOS stuff costs a bit more and governments get some more tax money from a ridiculously marked up converter.

[w0utert]

Maybe I'm the one who's missing something here, but why is everyone so obsessed with the Lightning connector Apple uses? As far as I understand it, the proposed legislation is about universal chargers, not universal cables, and isn't intended to promote interoperability between phones from different manufacturers, but to limit the environmental impact of replacing the charger every time you switch phones.

Last time I checked you can plug the USB side of the Lightning connector to any USB charger and vice versa, I'm pretty sure you can use the Apple charger to charge anything that also charges from a USB port. Seems to me that Apple would already be in compliance...

[simbolit]

sorry to disappoint you, but "charger" in this context means power supply PLUS cable.

[w0utert]

That doesn't make sense, since it would mean manufacturers would not be able to provide any kind of connector on their devices that provides more than just USB and charging, which I cannot imagine to be true.

If an adapter that goes from [whatever port is on the device] to micro-USB would be enough to be compliant with the proposed legislation, Apple is already in compliance, because not only do they sell such an adapter already, the charger end of their Lightning cable also has a standard USB connector (which means it effectively is a Lightning-to-USB adapter itself).

I know the EU already talked about standard chargers for mobile phones even before the iPhone existed, because back then every phone used to have a non-standard charger plus attached, non-removable cable. The whole idea behind the legislation was that the charger got useless the moment you lost or replaced your phone, so lots of them ended up on landfills. Mandating a common charger would allow selling phones without a charger, and re-using old chargers with different phones.

Unless you can quote the exact bits of the proposed rules that say 'any mobile device will have a micro-USB port' (or whatever port would be considered even more 'standard'), I'm going to assume everyone is just getting all worked up about nothing again, because "OMG iPhone does not have micro-USB, make them add it!".

[salient]

I think that already existed for years, and Apple is pretty much the only one in Europe who offers an adapter for their charger, while everyone else uses micro-USB.

So I may be wrong, but I think this is about actually forcing Apple to provide micro-USB directly.

[sigzero]

Apple is not going to do that.

[Someone]

The EU is too large a market for Apple to give up, and the EU will keep products from the market, if needed.

Apple will move, if pressed hard enough. I also think economies of scale will force the world to follow what the EU proscribes, just as the EU's lead free soldering requirements changed soldering (almost) everywhere, and just like California's emission guidelines affect cars (almost) everywhere.

[pokesmot]

Indeed. It already exists. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD820ZM/A/lightning-to-mic...

[minor_nitwit]

Any idea why it would be $20?

[coob]

The same reason the regular lightning to USB is:

* Because it's an active cable, not just a pin mapping.

* Because they can.