EU Members Urge Smartphone Makers To Adopt Common Charger

By Kunwar Kunal

| Published: Friday, January 31, 2020, 13:07 [IST]

EU lawmakers, with a majority vote share, have urged smartphone makers to adopt common charger. This was announced after the union found tons of electronic equipment accumulating as waste. The sudden announcement is likely to affect mainly Apple as iPhones' charging ability relies only on the lightning cables.

EU Members Urge Smartphone Makers To Adopt Common Charger

On the other hand, Android smartphone makers won't get affected too much, because most of their flagship phones are using the same USB-C charger. EU also said on Thursday that even wireless charging technology can be used as a common charger by the OEMs. Given that, the wireless charging will be an efficient technique to keep off the waste-accumulation.

The satirical part with Apple is-- it has offered USB Type-C chargers to its premium Macbook Pro laptops, and latest iPad Pro tablets and has remained negligent to adopt the USB-C port for its iPhones. Before the EU's announcement, Apple said that it's already pushing its portfolio towards the adoption of this kind of charging technique.

But again, another fear Apple cited that the sudden transition to Type-C from lightning cables would gather enough electronic waste. As upcoming devices would have to undergo major hardware changes for the port to fit in. As far as Qi wireless charging is concerned, high-end iPhones and other flagship Android phones are using the technology other than proprietary wireless charging support.

On a lighter note, the same Qi technology can be used to charge different Qi-compatible devices including iPhones as well. Now, to adopt this charging feature over a majority of devices, makers will need to bring down the cost, which in any way won't be possible, over the concerns of cost-cutting. Another murkier situation rises that even after Apple launches USB-C for its phones, it's less likely that the port will get compatible with other Android phones over security concerns.

Hence, it would be quite interesting to see how Android and iPhone makers will work with a common interest, keeping environmental pollution in mind.

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