Comment by lxgr
8 months ago
I absolutely love it. USB-C is easily among my top 3 changes for the better on iPhones in the last 10 years.
If "Wi-Fi Aware" (almost as ridiculous a name as "Bluetooth Low Energy", but that's a different topic) ends up allowing Android to iOS file transfers without any third-party apps or network connectivity – like feature phones could, 20 years ago – that'll make the top three too.
Apple was bringing USB-C to their entire line well before the EU "mandated" it. They were one of the first to put it on their laptops.
Yes, and they even co-developed the standard to my knowledge.
Still they were stubbornly refusing to bring it to their phones, which are their most popular product line by far, until the EU forced their hand.
You say "refusing to bring it to their phones", I say they were cautious about changing the port for the second time ever. I'd bet my retirement fund that Apple was going to bring USB-C to the iPhone that year already or at most 1 year later. It was slowly working its way down the line and I understand them being most hesitant about touching their golden goose.
But I understand your viewpoint and, again, I love USB-C (and my iPhone). My biases are absolutely playing into my viewpoint on this. I just don't think they were dragging their feet due to wanting to make more from MFI/Lightning as some suggested, it was mostly just being slow to change something that would annoy people (and the change did annoy many people, even though I don't think they should have been annoyed).
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Not quite. Apple could have removed the port entirely as a form of malicious compliance. They would have been in compliance with EU regulations without putting USB-C on their phones.
A second option would have been to make lightning a data only port that would not charge phones.
In either case, the reactions to “in order to comply with EU regulations, wired charging capability has been removed from iPhones sold in the EU” would have been hilarious.
The only thing they had with USB-C were the tablets. Literally everything else came out after the mandate. Apple also didn't communicate any intent on switching their connectors to USB-C.