Comment by kalleboo
5 hours ago
> Apple wasn't required to use USB-C up until the iPhone 17 release in September 2025
No, starting December 28, 2024 they could no longer import and sell iPhones with Lightning ports, so they had to at the very least make the iPhone 16 in September 2024 USB-C.
But Apple likes to sell the previous model phone as "the cheap option", so to have a previous generation to keep selling they had to add USB-C a model year early.
Apple added USB-C to the iPhone as late as they possibly could with their typical product cycle.
Existing models could be sold after the deadline, that date was only for newly introduced models.
Existing units could be sold after the deadline. Basically, what was left on store shelves. Existing models were not grandfathered in.
Apple stopped selling the iPhone 14/SE the day before the rule went into effect for this reason.
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/12/27/apple-stops-selling-iph...
> The regulation comes into force on December 28, and it applies to any individual iPhone unit placed for sale after that date, even if they are older models
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:...
> As for ‘making available’, the concept of placing on the market refers to each individual product, not to a type of product, and whether it was manufactured as an individual unit or in series. Consequently, placing on the Union market can only happen once for each individual product across the EU and does not take place in each Member State. Even though a product model or type has been supplied before new Union harmonisation legislation laying down new mandatory requirements entered into force, individual units of the same model or type, which are placed on the market after the new requirements have become applicable, must comply with these new requirements.