News

European Union Mandates the USB-C Charging Standard!

Over the last few years, the European Union has made more than a few overtures toward looking to standardise (as much as possible) charging systems within portable tech devices. Primarily driven by a wish to reduce overall electronic waste, back in April things in this regard took a big step forward when a formal adoption of USB-C as the standard and mandatory changing standard was put forward.

In other words, any portable tech product (smartphones, headphones, tablets, etc.) released in the region would be required to offer out of the box support for USB-C.

With this in mind though, would such a bold and clearly positive move for consumers actually have any success or chance of actually getting put through? – Well, following a report via TechPowerUp, we have our answer and the answer is yes. Pending a few relatively minor hurdles, all portable tech products released in Europe (within the near future) will be mandated to offer a USB-C charging port!

EU Mandates USB-C Charging Standard!

The most obvious consequence this move has is clearly in regards to Apple. As I’m sure many of you are aware, while many tech manufacturers have made a clear shift towards USB-C, Apple has been continually retaining their own proprietary ‘Lightening Port’ standard. – With this move though, which is expected to be formally introduced into law in late 2024, if Apple doesn’t change this themselves, they’ll only have one of two options; they’ll either have to provide a USB-C dongle out of the box or alternatively, simply transition to USB-C themselves.

And as crazy as this latter option might sound, there are already more than a few rumours that Apple is considering doing this and possibly long before this EU 2024 deadline!

On the whole, though, this is clearly a hugely positive move. And not just for us consumers either, but with USB-C set to represent the standard for the foreseeable future, although we’ll all be buying new tech over the coming years, we’re going to have significantly fewer cables in our life! (And if you’re anything like me, you probably already have a drawer full of them!).

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!

Mike Sanders

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

Plaion Launches Retro ZX Spectrum Computer

Plaion, a leading video game publisher, and Retro Games Ltd., a specialist in reimagined classic…

1 day ago

NVIDIA Warns of GeForce RTX 40 Graphics Card Shortages in November and December

During the latest earnings call, NVIDIA CFO Colette Kress warned of a potential GPU supply…

1 day ago

GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070 Reportedly Coming in Q1 2025

Chinese sources say the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070…

1 day ago

GTA 6 Already Winning Awards Before Its Launch

GTA 6 doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it has already earned a…

2 days ago

DJI Osmo Mobile 6, 3-Axis Phone Gimbal

Stay on Point with ActiveTrack 6.0 - With upgraded tracking tech, OM 6 sticks to…

2 days ago

Drayton Wiser Smart Radiator Thermostat TRV

Pack includes three Wiser Radiator Thermostats. These smart radiator thermostats are only designed to work…

2 days ago