As part of its environmental protection efforts, the EU Commission also wants to stop electronic waste – and even create new ones. One should aim to offer a similar charging socket for smartphones. There should be an offer in the fall, reports vertshaftswitch. The proposal should actually be published this summer.

Uniform sockets and charging cables and thus power packs should have been offered for a long time. There was an effort more than ten years ago that ended with a voluntary commitment. At that time, the number of charging plugs was reduced from 14 to 3 versions. Apple, on the other hand, refused at the time and established a Lightning “standard” – which could only be used with Apple devices.

Apple still believes that uniform sockets and plugs will deter innovation. However, it should be noted that Apple has already accepted the USB-C standard in many areas. The notebook has USB-C and the iPad Pro is also equipped with it.

So what’s stopping Apple from adding Lighting to the iPhone? That would mean losing a business for Apple. Lighting cables are – at least if they are sold by Apple – quite expensive and should have high margins. The power supply is equipped with USB-A and does not need to be replaced. Unless the EU Commission also specifies that the power supply must be USB-C. This would be annoying and require additional adapters – or people swapping out their power supplies.