It seems many are confused about what the iPhone Pro comes with today - a usb-c to lightning cable. So right now you only need to carry a single power brick and 2 cables. So after this law you can carry a single cable. A big win...I guess.

That's just you, of course. For hundreds of millions of others, this cuts the other way: over a decade's worth of Lightning accessories and cables and docks are out there.

Which is why the EU is just being dumb, here. They think they are accomplishing some amazing user-friendly enviro-friendly feat, but all they are really doing is making a lot of Lightning gear out there less useful.

And all this to switch to a port that is substantially larger, clunkier, and has no real advantages for iPhone users. Which is why Apple hasn't bothered changing up til now. That, plus Apple actually values what its customers REALLY need and what REALLY ACTUALLY benefits them.

How much time has to pass before the one-time cost of deprecating lightning is overtaken by the ongoing savings of having a single standard? Also consider that lightning would surely have eventually been deprecated one day even without this initiative.

How did lightning ever provide "ongoing savings"? It was simply an update of the 30-pin connector, it wasn't created to improve reusability or applicability to other kinds of devices.

Also, I don't really appreciate the snark. It's just a connector.

No on both counts. No, Lightning was not "simply an update" of the 30-pin connector; it was a creation of something entirely new, from scratch. And no, you don't have any idea about the motivations (or lack thereof) about why it was created, so let's just discard that.

The factual record, of course, shows us quite clearly that Apple did indeed design something that was highly "applicable to other kinds of devices", devices which Apple then went on to apply Lightning to. :) And of course we can also see quite clearly from the last ten years that Lightning has had a massive impact on the reusability of various chargers, docks, and cables. Why? Because Apple stuck with it for ten years and used it in all kinds of stuff.

As far as I'm aware, lightning was never used for any host device product line or use case that wasn't previously served by the 30 pin connector. So it clearly wasn't created with an intent to allow a broader range of devices to share it (or else they simply failed at achieving that). It covered the same use cases across the same product lines as the thing it replaced with no expansion upon that. Therefore there was never any "ongoing savings" by bringing together a greater range of use cases compared to the alternative.

For usefulness, it's broken if they bought Anker powerbank, Sony headphone, or Apple iPad.

Ignoring the fact that USB-C to Lightning cables exist, how in the world does a little power brick and cable make a "significant difference" to what you can take with you?

Can you tell me which standard does work with the switch? I have a few usb-c cables but only a few can charge it, while I can charge my iPad with every cable that I own, it a bit sad that ubs-c is a lie, I'd hope that at least a few things were not optional with usb-c standard, and also that it didn't have too much optional stuff that makes harder and harder to buy a cable, it the same with HDMI, that's why display port feels superior IMHO, less optional features.

The Switch USB-C connector is notorious for being non-complaint to the spec, making charging it finicky. However I did not encounter as much trouble as you, 9 out off 11 chargers I try work. This problem is unique to the Switch however.