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I'm with Apple on this one. Apple has kept working on improving the charging experience for its phones over time. The original iPhone cable, then lightning, th

I'm with Apple on this one. Apple has kept working on improving the charging experience for its phones over time. The original iPhone cable, then lightning, then wireless charging. This stifles innovation. Also: doesn't the government have more pressing concerns to worry about? I doubt Apple's lobbying against this for some nefarious reason, like locking users into their proprietary technology.

m463 7y ago
Note that Apple adopted Qi wireless charging. At that point my purchases of lightning cables stopped after I was able to take advantage of it. > I doubt Apple's lobbying against this for some nefarious reason Apple always, always fights for control. It is not nefarious per se, but it is usually at the (literal) expense of their customers.
CharlesW 7y ago
> The original iPhone cable, then lightning, then wireless charging. It's also worth noting that Apple began the move from Lightning to USB-C charging on iOS devices in 2018. The next generation of iPhones won't use Lightning. EDIT: The point is that Apple's been moving to standards-based charging for both macOS and iOS products for some time, making this EU effort even less necessary than it may first appear.
- FireBeyond 7y ago
  Wuh? They can release the 2018 iPad Pro with USB-C but the late 2019 iPhone 11 still has Lightning. But don't worry, the next will be USB-C? We shall see.
markdown 7y ago
> Also: doesn't the government have more pressing concerns to worry about? Sounds like "why spend money on NASA when we have poverty here on earth?". Governments have a lot of people and a lot of resources and can work on more than one thing at a time. > Apple has kept working on improving the charging experience for its phones over time And it will continue to do so. Except it now has to convince others to adopt its improvements.
- veeralpatel979 7y ago
  Yes but why is it so bad to let companies choose what charging cables they provide? You get a free charging cable usually when you purchase a new phone and charging cables are cheap. I get the environment argument but I don't see how this moves the needle on protecting the environment. If anything it could scare off tech companies from developing charging cables that are better for the environment.
  - sho_hn 7y ago
    I carry two phones, my private Android phone (my personal preference) and an iPhone imposed on me by work. Not having to bother with two sets of cables would be a welcome improvement. As for "not moving the needle", every little thing sums up. Also, it's not just the cables - manufacturing lines, shelf space, redundant labor, ...
    - scarface74 7y ago
      So because it would be more convenient for you we need government intervention?
      - sho_hn 7y ago
        That's an obnoxious and immature way to jump into a conversation. I didn't touch on government action anywhere, nor the comment I was responding to. I understood the parent post as arguing that having a unique cable isn't so bad because you get one for free with the device, among other things. While this is true, my counter is that having a single cable over multiple devices is still nice.
        scarface74 7y ago
        Seeing that the entire submission is about government regulation....
        7y ago
mrtweetyhack 7y ago
How convenient, you skip all the other Apple cables
wyattpeak 7y ago
I think Apple genuinely believe that they can provide a better product, and I believe they can too. I just don't care. The inability to borrow cables or swap them between devices in the past was a not insignificant hassle. Keeping boxes of cables, not being able to borrow a friend's charger when visiting, not being able to replace cables except by ordering a new one from the manufacturer half a world away. Constant minor irritation. The EU's first round of cable standardisation remains one of my favourite quality-of-life laws. No slightly more reliable cable is worth more than me than knowing I can use the same cable on as many devices as possible, and that I'm never going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere unable to buy a replacement charger for my phone. It's also a point which the invisible hand has a great deal of trouble solving, because phones are such a vital part of life that you're unlikely to refuse to buy simply on the basis of its charger. It's an easy bit of revenue for manufacturers to jump on, because they know it's probably not quite annoying enough to significantly affect device choice. I love me a free market solution, but it's important to recognise where the market fails, and we've already seen it fail to solve this problem once.
- lallysingh 7y ago
  Agreed. Also let's remember that Apple makes a pretty penny off of all those cables and chargers.
  - Lio 7y ago
    More worrying to me, the charging port on this iPhone is wearing out. Simply buying a new cable does nothing to fix that because the springs are in the phone. Lightning is a crap proprietary design from my point of view. If it was USB-C I could just change the cable.
    - dimman 7y ago
      Your statement would make more sense if USB-C somehow magically would be immune to wear, but it’s not.
      - 7y ago
RHSeeger 7y ago
> The original iPhone cable, then lightning, then wireless charging I was under the impression that Apple was behind the curve on wireless. My wife and I bought our phones at around the same time, her iPhone doesn't have wireless, my Android does. Bear in mind, not all Android do; that was one reason I didn't buy the Pixel when I bought my phone; no wireless charging was a deal breaker.
- pfranz 7y ago
  Apple was a bit "late," iPhone 8 (2017) started it, but they still sold (and maybe still sell?) plenty of phones that don't support it. Earlier on things kind of coalesced around 2 separate charging standards; Qi and PMA. Starbucks went all-in on PMA. I don't think I've seen a Starbucks with any wireless charing in years. So there were some big investments in the "wrong" tech.
stefan_ 7y ago
Lightning is best remembered for being such ancient technology that already in the year of its release, the connector was incapable of providing enough bandwidth for even a modest 1080p video signal. This eventually forced Apple into creating a lossy Lightning-to-HDMI adapter that would receive low bitrate h264 from your professional use iPad and decode it into its final artifact riddled form for output on HDMI.
- jacobush 7y ago
  The adapter running BSD Unix, no less.
FireBeyond 7y ago
Apple adopted Qi, an existing standard for wireless charging. > like locking users into their proprietary technology What else is it? They won't license Lightning to anyone else, they didn't license 30 pin to anyone else.
dingo_bat 7y ago
Apple is probably the most behind in charging tech right now. Wireless charging has been a thing in phones for 5-6 years now. Today's android phones have much faster and better charging methods than iphone. Both wired and wireless.
throw_m239339 7y ago
I'm with you and Apple on this, this is the kind of law that is abusive and hinders innovation. This is the stupid kind of law that was voted in hyper bureaucracies such as the Soviet Union. In fact I have hard time believing the EU is "liberal" at that point, it's just a new elite trying to find reasons to sustain itself and grow out of proportion. * The majority of phones use (micro) USB for charging, only Apple and a few others use a different format, and people who can afford Apple devices can afford buying a charger just for that device.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

m463 7y ago

Note that Apple adopted Qi wireless charging. At that point my purchases of lightning cables stopped after I was able to take advantage of it. > I doubt Apple's lobbying against this for some nefarious reason Apple always, always fights for control. It is not nefarious per se, but it is usually at the (literal) expense of their customers.

CharlesW 7y ago

> The original iPhone cable, then lightning, then wireless charging. It's also worth noting that Apple began the move from Lightning to USB-C charging on iOS devices in 2018. The next generation of iPhones won't use Lightning. EDIT: The point is that Apple's been moving to standards-based charging for both macOS and iOS products for some time, making this EU effort even less necessary than it may first appear.

FireBeyond 7y ago
Wuh? They can release the 2018 iPad Pro with USB-C but the late 2019 iPhone 11 still has Lightning. But don't worry, the next will be USB-C? We shall see.

markdown 7y ago

> Also: doesn't the government have more pressing concerns to worry about? Sounds like "why spend money on NASA when we have poverty here on earth?". Governments have a lot of people and a lot of resources and can work on more than one thing at a time. > Apple has kept working on improving the charging experience for its phones over time And it will continue to do so. Except it now has to convince others to adopt its improvements.

veeralpatel979 7y ago
Yes but why is it so bad to let companies choose what charging cables they provide? You get a free charging cable usually when you purchase a new phone and charging cables are cheap. I get the environment argument but I don't see how this moves the needle on protecting the environment. If anything it could scare off tech companies from developing charging cables that are better for the environment.
- sho_hn 7y ago
  I carry two phones, my private Android phone (my personal preference) and an iPhone imposed on me by work. Not having to bother with two sets of cables would be a welcome improvement. As for "not moving the needle", every little thing sums up. Also, it's not just the cables - manufacturing lines, shelf space, redundant labor, ...
  - scarface74 7y ago
    So because it would be more convenient for you we need government intervention?
    - sho_hn 7y ago
      That's an obnoxious and immature way to jump into a conversation. I didn't touch on government action anywhere, nor the comment I was responding to. I understood the parent post as arguing that having a unique cable isn't so bad because you get one for free with the device, among other things. While this is true, my counter is that having a single cable over multiple devices is still nice.
      - scarface74 7y ago
        Seeing that the entire submission is about government regulation....
        7y ago

mrtweetyhack 7y ago

How convenient, you skip all the other Apple cables

wyattpeak 7y ago

I think Apple genuinely believe that they can provide a better product, and I believe they can too. I just don't care. The inability to borrow cables or swap them between devices in the past was a not insignificant hassle. Keeping boxes of cables, not being able to borrow a friend's charger when visiting, not being able to replace cables except by ordering a new one from the manufacturer half a world away. Constant minor irritation. The EU's first round of cable standardisation remains one of my favourite quality-of-life laws. No slightly more reliable cable is worth more than me than knowing I can use the same cable on as many devices as possible, and that I'm never going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere unable to buy a replacement charger for my phone. It's also a point which the invisible hand has a great deal of trouble solving, because phones are such a vital part of life that you're unlikely to refuse to buy simply on the basis of its charger. It's an easy bit of revenue for manufacturers to jump on, because they know it's probably not quite annoying enough to significantly affect device choice. I love me a free market solution, but it's important to recognise where the market fails, and we've already seen it fail to solve this problem once.

lallysingh 7y ago
Agreed. Also let's remember that Apple makes a pretty penny off of all those cables and chargers.
- Lio 7y ago
  More worrying to me, the charging port on this iPhone is wearing out. Simply buying a new cable does nothing to fix that because the springs are in the phone. Lightning is a crap proprietary design from my point of view. If it was USB-C I could just change the cable.
  - dimman 7y ago
    Your statement would make more sense if USB-C somehow magically would be immune to wear, but it’s not.
    - 7y ago

RHSeeger 7y ago

> The original iPhone cable, then lightning, then wireless charging I was under the impression that Apple was behind the curve on wireless. My wife and I bought our phones at around the same time, her iPhone doesn't have wireless, my Android does. Bear in mind, not all Android do; that was one reason I didn't buy the Pixel when I bought my phone; no wireless charging was a deal breaker.

pfranz 7y ago
Apple was a bit "late," iPhone 8 (2017) started it, but they still sold (and maybe still sell?) plenty of phones that don't support it. Earlier on things kind of coalesced around 2 separate charging standards; Qi and PMA. Starbucks went all-in on PMA. I don't think I've seen a Starbucks with any wireless charing in years. So there were some big investments in the "wrong" tech.

stefan_ 7y ago

Lightning is best remembered for being such ancient technology that already in the year of its release, the connector was incapable of providing enough bandwidth for even a modest 1080p video signal. This eventually forced Apple into creating a lossy Lightning-to-HDMI adapter that would receive low bitrate h264 from your professional use iPad and decode it into its final artifact riddled form for output on HDMI.

jacobush 7y ago
The adapter running BSD Unix, no less.

FireBeyond 7y ago

Apple adopted Qi, an existing standard for wireless charging. > like locking users into their proprietary technology What else is it? They won't license Lightning to anyone else, they didn't license 30 pin to anyone else.

dingo_bat 7y ago

Apple is probably the most behind in charging tech right now. Wireless charging has been a thing in phones for 5-6 years now. Today's android phones have much faster and better charging methods than iphone. Both wired and wireless.

throw_m239339 7y ago

I'm with you and Apple on this, this is the kind of law that is abusive and hinders innovation. This is the stupid kind of law that was voted in hyper bureaucracies such as the Soviet Union. In fact I have hard time believing the EU is "liberal" at that point, it's just a new elite trying to find reasons to sustain itself and grow out of proportion. * The majority of phones use (micro) USB for charging, only Apple and a few others use a different format, and people who can afford Apple devices can afford buying a charger just for that device.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]