Apple has been battling the European Union for some time now, trying to convince the world that there is nothing wrong with the company’s Lightning cable/port. That being forced to move to USB-C would cause confusion and stress for its customers. However, the EU insists that it will reduce confusion and allow all devices to work off the same connection.
The battle has been going on for months and as of today, it has finally attained a verdict. The EU has reached an agreement, thus all mobile devices will have to make use of the USB-C connection vs proprietary or alternative options. Minimizing cable mess as you won’t need a bunch of different cables for all of your devices any longer.
This means that Apple will be forced to eliminate the Lightning port from the remaining devices that make use of it. Thankfully for the company, most of its products have already made the shift to USB-C, leaving only a few models that run into this. Meanwhile, it seems that Apple expected this verdict, thus the company has already been testing the use of USB-C in these devices.
It seems that companies won’t feel the pressure just yet, as the requirement won’t go into effect until the Fall of 2024. So devices that release in the meantime could still feature alternative connections. In Europe, at least. This requirement does not extend to the US and other territories outside of the EU. However, it would cost these companies more time and money to manufacture two different versions of any piece of hardware. So you can bet to see all other regions of the world become affected by this all the same.
