"A 10% additional tax shall apply to the sale of any portable device. The tax will be reduced to zero if the device uses the most common charging port in the year the device was sold. The tax is reduced to 5% if it uses the 2nd most common port in the year it was sold."
That means any big industry effort to move to a new port will, when it gets more than 50% support, will immediately get everyone else to move over to save money. And people can still use custom/niche ports, but they'll take a hit to their bottom line for the privilege - but it'll be worth it if the utility of the better port is good enough the user is happy to pay a premium for it.
The fact the tax is determined at the end of the year means manufacturers have an incentive to work together on standardization even after devices are in the hands of consumers. For example, Apple could maybe open up lightning to other manufacturers and save a lot of taxes on devices already sold in that year, if they could make lightning the most popular in the year.
* Replacement parts for 5 (smartphone), 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 (plane) years
* Open specification for replacement parts (manufacturer goes out of business, third parties take over)
* Maintenance manuals. Like Lenovo provides for ThinkPads with explosive diagrams. FOR FREE.
* If software is included, manufacturer must state in packaging how long upgrades and updates will be provided.
* If software is included, it must be user replaceable. Even on an appliance, the manufacturer must provide instructions (e.g. EEPROM, replaceable chip, dongle which shows that software was user modified -> important for safety)
* Repairability
* More stuff...
PS: I doesn't necessarily need to rise prices, which politicians often do because it is "easy". Maybe replace the FAT or parts of it.
Aside from that. I still love the first paragraph of the German traffic law:
(1) Participation in road traffic requires constant caution and mutual consideration.
(2) Anyone participating in traffic must behave in such a way that no other person is harmed, endangered or obstructed or inconvenienced more than is unavoidable under the circumstances.
Even USB-C has licensing fees - although they are insignificant for most companies.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/QANDA_...
I'm still looking for the part where exceptions are listed and there are already some e.g. for small fitness trackers. They are slow but not necessarily stupid. *Nobody prevents any manufacturer to add additional charging ports.*
TLDR Power plugs across Europe and North America where standardized for decades. And guess what. That stuff works! And YES this new regulations actually implements a new power plug aside from the Europlug, USB Type-C. This is nothing entirely new or crazy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europlug
>Nobody prevents any manufacturer to add additional charging ports.
Except for market demands of smaller phones.
My question to you is: would you have wanted micro-USB to be standardized like this?
How many Micro-USB Iphones have been sold in the EU?
This is a law. It's completely different.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply
Except, that is not true at all. Every single manufacturer moved to a new, better plug when it became available and faced no repercussions. That is no longer possible.
Not really. And the choice between battery life and a second charging port nobody cares about, because it isn't "the one" is rather obvious.
This also misses the point entirely. The point being, the number of ports decreases the volume available for everything else.
So thats why iPhones ate getting bigger?
Would be interested to know how much multiple charge ports affect price/complexity.
>Especially if the port is a brand new standard you'll never be able to borrow a charge cable for from a friend.
The solution to that are adapters.
If I carried an adapter I'd probably have my charger with me to be honest and I don't know anyone nice enough to carry adapters for others.
What kind of tablet needs more than 240w ? I think that's what Alienware uses as well so I doubt you will ever need more than that. Not to mention that the trend going towards more efficient electronics/chips etc.
How often do you forget your charger, but somehow have an adapter?
What if I buy a water bottle, but I forget to fill it with water?
In which case I wholeheartedly approve.
Maybe, but will it be so small to make two ports cumbersome? Doubtful imo
That's a nice loophole there :)
Anyway, it's not like USB-C isn't good enough and that they can't change the rules if/when a new connector get enough support. And to get enough support, it most likely means that it has to be compatible (in some way) with USB-C. That's a nice feature.
> The application of the laws to new charging technologies should be regularly reviewed.
While I think USB-C is quite well designed, this legislation makes it extremely hard for a superior standard to arise. The only reason USB-C has any grounds to be a mandated standard is because it already is widely used. For an alternative standard to arise, first you would need to convince multiple nation state governments and/or a multi-nation government to allow the standard to be used, even before it made it to market.
That's why every Android and gadget out there used it, as opposed to 50 other connectors before that on feature phones.
Apple found a loophole around it by shipping a dongle with iPhones. With the update to the standard that loophole was closed.
It was literally the EU saying "hey guys, please use micro-B on your phone" (with an implicit threat that actual legislation may follow if you don't).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply
It wasn't so bad last time around because manufacturers could upgrade from micro-B to USB-C without issue. Now they cannot legally upgrade.
I went into more details in my other reply (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33653799). Not being an EU policy expert (nor a citizen) I probably got a thing or two wrong and would appreciate corrections.
If so, is the law removed, or is everyone breaking that law these days(As I don't see any phones being sold with micro-usb) but noone cares ?
To summarize it mostly from memory, it was a voluntary agreement between 10(ish) phone manufacturers (Apple included) and the EU. It had an expiry date, and it was renewed on a yearly basis 2009-2014.
In 2014 EU figured out this was working fine, and allowed itself up until 2020 to make it obligatory (as opposed to voluntary). They also took this time to figure out categories of products that should be impacted (headphones, cameras, those sorts of things). Then in 2021 they made changes to the directive, setting Type C as the standard.
EU directives are not exactly laws. Instead, it's a way of telling member states what they should be implementing in their own national laws. Member states then have two years to do the actual implementation. So, late 2023 member states will all have slightly different laws, but basically all saying the same (Type C is the only connector allowed, users must have an option to exclude a charger from their purchase). Not quite the same as EU-wide law, but not quite different in practice.
So what will happen after Type C is that the directive is going to be changed, and then there's again going to be a few in-between years. Probably somewhere in between 2 (deadline for member states to implement those changes) and 9 years (how long it took this time around, 2014-2023), because next time around they won't have to spend seven years figuring out details.
USB-C is quite a good standard, but it also incorporated some of the features of lightning, e.g. rotational symmetry, a significant usability enhancement.
The question is: could e.g. apple create a port which is significantly superior to USB-C, the way lightning was superior to Micro-USB?
I think there is already one: MagSafe/MagSafe2. Is it worth a new pile of chargers/wires along usb-c? I think no. Even apple discontinued it for a while.
These laws don't say you can't make better chargers, they say if you make a mass produced device from the provided categories and it's going to charge by cable you will need to make sure that it has at least one USB-C charging port.
Besides, this is only in EU(and India now). Sure, there's a Brussels effect but as you can see even with iPhone the companies can have multiple versions of a product. US iPhones don't have physical SIM cards anymore, the other have it. So if it happens that Apple invents significantly better charging port for the iPhone, they can sell those everywhere else in the world and EU can revisit the laws if there's an interest.
How would the makers of these laws know this? How would you determine the quality of a connector if you do not have benchmarks like manufacturer adoption, market demand, longevity in the field?
What will effectively happen is that the USB implementers forum will become a state(s) sponsored organization with a monopoly on defining charging connectors. They will not have any competition, because any company which might want to compete has to first comvince the government(s) that their standard is superior, without being allowed to roll it out.
That is something of a mindfuck for the rest of the world.
The problem is if the law of 1 country is not amended then you have fragmentation. What does apple do? Change for 1 country and be fined in another? Not release in some countries? Have different devices?
This year the US iPhone doesn't have a physical SIM tray. So if EU acts slow on adopting this amazing new charging port, the Americans and Japanese can have it and EU can wait.
It doesn't make much sense to keep having fragmentation now so that we don't risk a fragmentation in the future.
The Planet is a big place, the idea that could even produce one product for the entire world would be crazy for most of human history.
Also, I'm not sure what the Indian law says, but at least the EU version actually requires review of current technologies every 5 years.
The goal of the law is to ensure standardization of connectors is happening, not to enforce USB-C forever.
If "no laws" would be the solution, Apple would have switched to USB-C already. Unfortunately they didn't, proving the law was necessary.
Nobody is going to put two ports on a device. Required minimum is the legislated maximum for physical interfaces.
IANAL though, so I am unsure how well they legally described that requirement.
Indian courts are notoriously inefficient. “Better” would take a decade to define through case law. Anyone who can afford that is better served removing physical ports.
In any case, I see no evidence of this in current releases [1].
What's the definition of "better". If Lightning is worse, then based on which criteria?
Based on "It’s not USB".
No, there's no way for a startup selling handheld mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, headsets, handheld videogame consoles, portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems, earbuds or laptops to invent their own shiny new connector for charging without providing support for USB-C at the same time.
What exactly is lost if a startup is not able to shove their proprietary connector instead of using the standard? A startup selling floor lamps can't sell their own proprietary power plug and outlet either.
I know that historically most chargers are just a way to hide the true total cost of ownership. But the electronics industry is now shifting towards innovating in more areas than just shrinking the digital parts. Consumer electronics are a big part of how new stuff gets funded.
> A startup selling floor lamps can't sell their own proprietary power plug and outlet either.
Nobody forbids them from doing that.
Just? Apple was probably the first company to go full in on USB-C with Macbook Pro in 2016, 6 years ago
I prefer a free market of multiple options.
The alternative to this is the usage of “including, but not limited to, phones, mp3 players” which leaves you guessing if something needs to be listed or not.
As I understand it USB is always backwards compatible so it wouldn't be a problem.
USB-C is by far not adopted by everyone but Apple. There are thousands of devices on Amazon which still use Micro-USB which is as annoying as Apple using Lightning
One example of progress on power outlets I know of is Denmark: Here the non-grounded plug has been compatible with Schuko outlets as used in most of the rest of Northern Europe, and Schuko connectors will fit in the outlets without ground connection.
Since most appliances come with Schuko plugs, a decision has been made for new installations to use the Schuko outlet, allowing a gradual transition to the Schuko standard.
if only it was this simple.
1. usually power outlets are standardised across countries (but there are countries where this is not the case and you'll find different plugs in the same country). two countries that share a border can have two or more completely different outlets/plugs.
2. power outlets are very simple devices. especially compared to usb-c.
3. but the G Plug is known to be one of the best, if not the best electrical plug. even so i think the chance of, for example, Denmark adopting this plug are close to zero.
so it's all very grey.
One massive downside of the type G plug (UK, Ireland, etc.) is its size. Most mobile charging adapters for phones or even laptops are 30-80% bigger, in my anecdotal experience, than the type A equivalent. The plug is well-designed from a safety and robustness perspective, and I appreciate that it's far better than the two-prong "Europlug" (for instance) at firmly attaching to a wall outlet, but it really should have been miniaturized.
The type L, J, and B plugs are far more compact as three-prong plugs go, even if they lack the third-prong shutter activation and fuse.