European Union launched today a threat, which should have been coming for a long time, against Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), and of other smartphone manufacturers who were obliged to standardize the charging ports of their phones, but did not do so. Apple is one of the 14 companies that has committed since 2009 to implement in the iPhone a port based on a standard widely adopted by the phone manufacturing industry.
The European Union wants to force all phone manufacturers to use the same type of connector to allow charging phones with any kind of charger that can be bought on the market. This change would allow the use of a charger to charge any kind of phone on the market, and Apple obliged to adhere to this strategy, even signing a document to this effect, but of course they have not made any move so far.
Apple is THREATENED by the EU because of the iPhone
Based on that agreement, companies were obliged to use only microUSB ports in phones until 2011, but the agreement expired in 2012, and many still do what they want, Apple having Lightning ports in phones and tablets. Considering that Apple, and other companies, still do not want to offer a single standard for charging phones, the European Union wants to force them to do so for the benefit of consumers, including through community legislation.
"Given the unsatisfactory progress with this voluntary approach, the Commission will shortly launch an impact assessment study to evaluate costs and benefits of different other options. The European Commission has been pushing for a common charger for nearly a decade as it cited the more than 51,000 tons of electronic waste annually from old chargers as well as the inconvenience to consumers."
The European Union is now considering its options to force phone companies to use a single standard for their products, even though many only use USB-C at the moment. Apple doesn't really want to do this, because it likes to keep its customers locked up with its own technologies, but I sincerely hope that the European Union will find the legal levers to help them understand that the communist strategy of keeping your users tied to adopted technologies only by you, it's not really good.
