Yeah, Gruber's theory is that they'll go straight to portless rather than USB-C. Maybe.
At this point, the "waste" argument is a bit silly. If Apple were to move to USB-C, that would also produce waste: by their very argument, those who have been in the iPhone ecosystem for years and years (which is a ton of people) would all need to get new cables.
The other problem with such regulation is that it takes a long time to modernize it. The EU has been at the "standardize phone ports" thing for a long time, and when they started, it wasn't for USB-C but rather micro-USB. Had they succeeded at the time, we might be in a bizarro world where European phones have to feature a micro-USB port while other countries get the much nicer Lightning or USB-C port.
I think the intent is noble, but I also think this is mostly a non-issue.
Incidentally, Apple has already done one of their key points:
Quote:
|
Unbundling the sale of a charger from the sale of the electronic device: consumers will be able to purchase a new electronic device without a new charger. This will limit the number of unwanted chargers purchased or left unused.
|
But I don't think it's that great. I also think they did it at a particularly dumb time. Why not wait a few years for most iPhone chargers to move from USB-A/Lightning to USB-C/Lightning?
Really, if Apple wants the cake (the margin) and to eat it, too (say it's for the environment), just add it as a purchase option, but discounted. Give iPhone buyers $10 towards a charger. If they don't want/need one, great. If they do, it won't cost full price.