[Agustus]

A great way to stifle innovation.

Apple has been trying out cables and transfer types over the years (thunderbolt, CD-ROM, USB, wireless) and they do it on the backs of the luxury users, not too far off from what the luxury car makers in testing what to propagate downstream.

Apple has set a standard to use their cable format, which works. If you go through the litany of USB-B there were power issues, transfer rates, and a whole host of other items that, while it met the standard, did not work. An example is my Barnes & Noble Nook needing a special cable to work with the PC; it was USB-B, but not using the right transfer and power source rendered cables useless for interface.

If anyone can say the roll out of USB-C has been better, even with the “standard” then there have been a number of articles on here that have pointed to fake cables, horrible QC and other items.

So, a government agency has taken the draconian step of forcing a standard, one which will be helpful for the European companies that produce phones and people wonder why there is so much money in politics.

[FireBeyond]

> Apple has set a standard to use their cable format, which works.

And precisely which other manufacturers have Apple licensed this standard (Lightning) to?

And by that I mean not "we will deign to allow you to make cables for our products", but "here's a new standard connector everyone can use".

It's absolutely laughable to claim Lightning as any kind of standard.

[cosmodisk]

It is absolutely not,in any way or form.Charger is only second to a power plug.My TV, router, washing machine and hair dryer use the same type of plug to get electricity from a socket. It's 2020 and yet we argue how it's beneficial to have x types of phones with z types of connections...Come on!

[npo9]

Electrical plugs also haven’t had any real innovations since the ground wire. I hope to see innovations in power/data cables to cellphones more frequently than that!

Edit: even if the innovations is just faster data transfer and more power.

[fiter]

It's my experience that monitors, routers, speakers, and other devices often have non-standardized connectors. At the very least there are many different barrel connectors with different sizes, voltages, and amperages.

[Rexxar]

  > A great way to stifle innovation.

This need an explanation. Why do you think this ?

This law doesn't forbid any innovative technology, it just mandate there is at least one way to charge phones with a standard charger. It can be an adapter, a second port or whatever solution they find.

[KerrickStaley]

What is "USB-B" here? I don't think that's a thing. There is USB type B, but I don't think that's what you're referring to.