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How is it pointless? The article talks about trying to cut down on electronic waste: > The regulator is determined to cut down on electronic waste being creat

How is it pointless? The article talks about trying to cut down on electronic waste: > The regulator is determined to cut down on electronic waste being created by obsolete cables, which it estimates generate more than 51,000 tonnes of waste per year. It's surely much less wasteful to extend the life of the cable standard than to ensure longer cable lifespans. Even if you had a cable that lasted 7 years, chances are the standard would have changed and you would be forced to replace it. You can always purchase higher quality cables that do have longer lifespans if Apple's aren't up to your quality standards. > In fact it probably works against Apple as it demonstrates that the churn of innovation doesn't really exist if new advances only occur every 9 years. I think you may have misunderstood the OP statistics. My understanding was that the industry standards have previously been churning at a higher rate than Apple's standards. So Apple's standards are often longer lived than the standard connections.

kd913 7y ago
It's pointless because , the chance of a cable lasting 7 years doesn't happen. Even the phone isn't typically designed to last that long. The cases where people end up replacing their cable because of a new standard is way less frequent than the cable breaking, this has been my experience at least considering the shifting standards which you talk about. It sounds a bit like optimizing some process but ignoring what is actually the bottleneck. The problem in this case is not the standard on top, but the lifetime of the cable. If the goal is to reduce e-waste then surely it makes sense to tackle the approach from a reduce, reuse, recycle perspective in that order and focussing on the EOL for the cable. By shifting to one cable standard, you can reduce/reuse as at least other products can have better utilization as that old cable is still usable with other products. I have been less incentivised to buy new usb C cable for my phone because my switch and headphone cables still work just fine. I can't do anything with a lightning cable if my iphone dies other than to use it for apple products. Just like I can't do anything with my old ipod connectors. That is just straight e-waste. By shifting to one cable standard, we can more easily recycle the cable as there would be more manufacturers who would have the supply-chain/capabilities of recycling these chargers. Contrast that to the lightning cable which only apple and other companies with a lightning connector can handle effectively.
- ppf 7y ago
  I don't know why it has proven so durable, but I'm still using a Motorola-branded charger and microUSB cable that came with a Defy+, around 2012.
  - jeswin 7y ago
    The original Defy (2010) was the best phone I had ever owned. Water resistant, hardy, high resolution and very, very pocketable. I think the folks on XDA kept OS updates available till Android 7.
    - Yetanfou 7y ago
      No, it did not go beyond 4.4. 5.0 has been booted on it but never got any further, mostly due to the fact that nobody got a 3.x kernel running satisfactorily on the device. I do use one with a 3.1 kernel (running MPD) but all the others are still at 2.6.
    - ppf 7y ago
      Sadly, I can't say the same of my experience with the Defy+. I found it quite disappointing. Small screen, bulky case (that was fragile and broke around the external screws), and not much more wear and water resistant than a regular phone. I dug it out recently and sold it on ebay, although I'm not sure what can be done with a phone stuck with an old version of the play store.
  - Yetanfou 7y ago
    Same here, including the Defy+ itself. I have a slew of them doing duty as work phone, trailer camera, media player and such.
- drcongo 7y ago
  Until recently my daughter was still using a 30pin cable that came with a first gen iPad. So "the chance of a cable lasting 7 years doesn't happen" is patently false.
  - 7y ago
hrktb 7y ago
Obsolete cables are not just technology marching forward, but also customers buying other makers’ devices that make them useless. An iPhone user buying an android phone will need a new set of cables, his old lightning ones have no purpose anymore.
- christophilus 7y ago
  iPhone users don’t switch to Android in enough scale for that to be a factor.
  - NicoJuicy 7y ago
    Indeed, because there aren't enough iPhone users to begin with. 87% vs 13%
    - pwinnski 7y ago
      If there aren't enough iPhone users to worry about, then why force us to replace all of our cables, chargers, docks, etc? You can't have it both ways! One year ago, there were 1.4 billion[0] of us, each with one or more (many more, in my case) cables, docks, cradles, etc. That's a lot of waste to churn up for "not enough iPhone users." [0] https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/29/18202736/apple-devices-ios-earnings-q1-2019 https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/29/18202736/apple-devices-io...
      - NicoJuicy 7y ago
        If you say "x billion of us", you probably didn't get the joke ( joke was facts based though) ;) I was putting the op in another perspective, because he was being arrogant to Android users ;)
  - hrktb 7y ago
    That's a single scenario (focusing on the 'obsolete' part), and android users buying iPhones has the same effect (additional cables for no functional difference) There's an infinite number of cases where getting rid of the lightning spec would reduce the number of cables. A household with an iPhone and an android user would also buy an extra set of cables that could be avoided. Even having an iPad in the mix generates cable duplication: the iPad Pro is on the different connector, android users buying an iPad is also more common than one would think. Broadening to charging stations in waiting rooms, shopping malls, cafes etc., including other portable devices like headphones, portable batteries, cameras, etc. and the iPhone having its own non standard and connector is more and more a waste.

kd913 7y ago

It's pointless because , the chance of a cable lasting 7 years doesn't happen. Even the phone isn't typically designed to last that long. The cases where people end up replacing their cable because of a new standard is way less frequent than the cable breaking, this has been my experience at least considering the shifting standards which you talk about. It sounds a bit like optimizing some process but ignoring what is actually the bottleneck. The problem in this case is not the standard on top, but the lifetime of the cable. If the goal is to reduce e-waste then surely it makes sense to tackle the approach from a reduce, reuse, recycle perspective in that order and focussing on the EOL for the cable. By shifting to one cable standard, you can reduce/reuse as at least other products can have better utilization as that old cable is still usable with other products. I have been less incentivised to buy new usb C cable for my phone because my switch and headphone cables still work just fine. I can't do anything with a lightning cable if my iphone dies other than to use it for apple products. Just like I can't do anything with my old ipod connectors. That is just straight e-waste. By shifting to one cable standard, we can more easily recycle the cable as there would be more manufacturers who would have the supply-chain/capabilities of recycling these chargers. Contrast that to the lightning cable which only apple and other companies with a lightning connector can handle effectively.

ppf 7y ago
I don't know why it has proven so durable, but I'm still using a Motorola-branded charger and microUSB cable that came with a Defy+, around 2012.
- jeswin 7y ago
  The original Defy (2010) was the best phone I had ever owned. Water resistant, hardy, high resolution and very, very pocketable. I think the folks on XDA kept OS updates available till Android 7.
  - Yetanfou 7y ago
    No, it did not go beyond 4.4. 5.0 has been booted on it but never got any further, mostly due to the fact that nobody got a 3.x kernel running satisfactorily on the device. I do use one with a 3.1 kernel (running MPD) but all the others are still at 2.6.
  - ppf 7y ago
    Sadly, I can't say the same of my experience with the Defy+. I found it quite disappointing. Small screen, bulky case (that was fragile and broke around the external screws), and not much more wear and water resistant than a regular phone. I dug it out recently and sold it on ebay, although I'm not sure what can be done with a phone stuck with an old version of the play store.
- Yetanfou 7y ago
  Same here, including the Defy+ itself. I have a slew of them doing duty as work phone, trailer camera, media player and such.
drcongo 7y ago
Until recently my daughter was still using a 30pin cable that came with a first gen iPad. So "the chance of a cable lasting 7 years doesn't happen" is patently false.
- 7y ago

hrktb 7y ago

Obsolete cables are not just technology marching forward, but also customers buying other makers’ devices that make them useless. An iPhone user buying an android phone will need a new set of cables, his old lightning ones have no purpose anymore.

christophilus 7y ago
iPhone users don’t switch to Android in enough scale for that to be a factor.
- NicoJuicy 7y ago
  Indeed, because there aren't enough iPhone users to begin with. 87% vs 13%
  - pwinnski 7y ago
    If there aren't enough iPhone users to worry about, then why force us to replace all of our cables, chargers, docks, etc? You can't have it both ways! One year ago, there were 1.4 billion[0] of us, each with one or more (many more, in my case) cables, docks, cradles, etc. That's a lot of waste to churn up for "not enough iPhone users." [0] https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/29/18202736/apple-devices-ios-earnings-q1-2019 https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/29/18202736/apple-devices-io...
    - NicoJuicy 7y ago
      If you say "x billion of us", you probably didn't get the joke ( joke was facts based though) ;) I was putting the op in another perspective, because he was being arrogant to Android users ;)
- hrktb 7y ago
  That's a single scenario (focusing on the 'obsolete' part), and android users buying iPhones has the same effect (additional cables for no functional difference) There's an infinite number of cases where getting rid of the lightning spec would reduce the number of cables. A household with an iPhone and an android user would also buy an extra set of cables that could be avoided. Even having an iPad in the mix generates cable duplication: the iPad Pro is on the different connector, android users buying an iPad is also more common than one would think. Broadening to charging stations in waiting rooms, shopping malls, cafes etc., including other portable devices like headphones, portable batteries, cameras, etc. and the iPhone having its own non standard and connector is more and more a waste.