Last week’s poll raised some hackles – a lot of people really hate the idea of a port-less future for smartphones. And quite a few are convinced that the EU will block any such designs, but that may not be possible. Here is how the official post describes the rules:
Regardless of their manufacturer, all new mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems, earbuds and laptops that are rechargeable via a wired cable, operating with a power delivery of up to 100 Watts, will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C port.
All devices that support fast charging will now have the same charging speed, allowing users to charge their devices at the same speed with any compatible charger.
The key part is this – that are rechargeable via a wired cable. That is the EU doesn’t mandate that USB-C is used, just that if a battery-powered device uses wired charging, it should use USB-C. If a device only supports wireless charging, then it falls under different rules.
As for the talk that the EU will bring back removable batteries on all smartphones, that’s not necessarily a blocker either – the Galaxy S4 and S5 had both removable batteries and wireless charging, for example.
The EU also wants to regulate wireless charging, but here’s how it plans to go about things:
As wireless charging becomes more prevalent, the European Commission will have to harmonise interoperability requirements by the end of 2024, to avoid having a negative impact on consumers and the environment. This will also get rid of the so-called technological “lock-in” effect, whereby a consumer becomes dependent on a single manufacturer.
That’s more a worry for manufacturers who use proprietary tech to offer higher speeds than current Qi chargers can deliver. Apple, Samsung and Google stick with Qi, for example.
But that may not be enough, a third of voters in the poll don’t believe that the current wireless charging tech is up to snuff. That is on par with the number of people who think that wired charging will never go away.
And they may be right, at least when talking about the smartphone market in general – some makers still offer 3.5mm jacks for wired headphones (and at least several people in the comments posted about owning one). However, tens of millions of iPhones and tens of millions Galaxy S phones are sold each quarter, along tens of millions of Bluetooth headphones. A few brands selling small quantities isn’t enough to buck the trend.
Then there are those who think that think port-less is the inevitable future. They are divided in two groups, with those who dread the idea being the slightly larger group. Maybe they will come around, like most people did with Bluetooth headphones.
What does the future hold? Tim Cook is probably the only one who knows – if Apple goes wireless-only, it won’t be long before other brands follow suit. Other brands may have too much to lose by dropping the USB-C port, e.g. Samsung and Motorola do not want to lose their desktop modes, Xiaomi and Oppo don’t want to use their superfast charging (which is way faster than even the fastest wireless), but perhaps as technology evolves they won’t have to.
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