Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak has confirmed that the tech giant will be transitioning to USB-C connectors to comply with the EU’s regulation.
Joswiak was asked by WSJ’s Senior Personal Technology Columnist, Joanna Stern, whether Apple is moving to USB-C in light of the European Parliament’s vote in favor of making USB-C the common charging standard in the region.
“Obviously, we’ll have to comply.” Joswiak responded.
The European Parliament voted in March of 2019 to mandate that all new phones shipped in the EU after July 1st, 2019 must use a “common external power supply.”
This essentially means that all new phones sold in Europe must use a USB-C charger, as opposed to the myriad of proprietary chargers currently on the market.
While many Android phone manufacturers already use USB-C chargers, Apple has yet to make the switch for its iPhones. The iPad Pro models were the first Apple devices to transition to USB-C back in 2018.
Apple isn’t the only company that will be affected by this mandate; companies like Huawei, Samsung, and Sony will also need to comply.
But given that Apple only uses proprietary Lightning connectors for its iPhones (as opposed to microUSB like most Android phones), the transition could be more difficult for Cupertino than it is for its competitors. And given that Apple typically releases new iPhone models in September, it’s likely that we won’t see any iPhones with USB-C connectors until next year’s lineup at the earliest.
