Wow I Can't Believe My Android Phone Still Uses Micro-USB Since That Was Forced By Law!!!

Please think about what you're saying for a moment

You've missed my point, which was that USB connectors on phones have changed over the years and the EU is locking devices into C.

You missed their point. The EU "locked" devices into micro B but somehow they still managed to switch to USB-C when it became viable. How could they have switched if they were as "locked in" as you think?

You're right -- I was unaware that micro usb was mandated a decade ago, so it doesn't seem like the mandate was doing much in the first place.

I mean the simple fact that every phone manufacturer bar Apple moved to Micro-B indicates that the mandate works, and the fact that they then migrated to USB-C indicates that it doesn't lock manufacturers in forever.

In addition, Apple is known for making loads of dongles, so it wouldn't be remotely weird for them to sell/ship a lightning -> USB-C dongle. So the argument about mandating e-waste doesn't really hold up either.

So you have:

- It works - It doesn't lock manufacturers in forever - It doesn't mandate e-waste

Any other reasons you want to give? So far those are the only three I've seen and none of them hold water.

As someone else pointed out, the micro-b thing in the EU was a recommendation and not a mandate so the terms are a bit different here.

I would be happy to have Apple move to Type C, but I do question if an actual mandate (and not a recommendation) could prevent future USB connector adoption in the EU market.

You are broadly right about the last one not being a legal mandate.

It was basically a case of the EU saying "you need to choose one charging port that you all use, we _will_ create a mandate if you don't".

Importantly, the EU has already gone through a shift in charging standards, so they already understand how this stuff advances and have prepared for it in their own legislation (the EU tends to make laws with details on how those laws will be changed in the future etc. since they are at core still a large trade bloc). You can find a Q&A they gave here:

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/QANDA_...

Where the following section applies:

> Will the proposal be an obstacle to innovation?

The Commission's proposal aims at providing consumers with an open and interoperable solution and, at the same time, enabling technological innovation. The proposal encourages innovation for wired and wireless technology charging.

Any technological developments in wired charging can be reflected in a timely adjustment of technical requirements/ specific standards under the Radio Equipment Directive. This would ensure that the technology used is not outdated.

At the same time, the implementation of any new standards in further revisions of Radio Equipment Directive would need to be developed in a harmonised manner, respecting the objectives of full interoperability. Industry is therefore expected to continue the work already undertaken on the standardised interface, led by the USB-IF organisation, in view of developing new interoperable, open and non-controversial solutions.

In addition, larger technological developments are expected in the area of wireless charging, which is still a developing technology with a low level of market fragmentation. In order to allow innovation in this field, the proposal does not set specific technical requirements for wireless charging. Therefore, manufacturers remain free to include any wireless charging solution in their products alongside the wired charging via the USB-C port.

To summarize, they'll work with the USB-IF (made up of a whole bunch of companies, including Apple) when the USB-IF makes a new standard in order to ensure that new connection innovations will be propagated to new devices. What they won't allow is a company like Apple having an "innovation" then diverging from how everyone expects devices to charge.

Interestingly they've also said that there's a set of standardized fast-charging capabilities that need to be clearly labelled on products that require/support them. So if you buy a tablet it'll have a label on the box saying "can charge at up to 50w" or whatever, and a charger would say "can charge at up to 50w", so you know it'll charge at full speed. That's a little better than the previous "it supports fast charging" umbrella.

For a while Apple included micro-USB to lightning dongles with EU iPhones, but I think they've stopped doing that some time ago.

> the EU is locking devices into C.

For now. Why wouldn't the EU be able to just change the law? This mandate passed relatively quickly. Why can't they just repeat this?

Clearly something happened (or didn't happen) which allowed phone manufacturers to ignore the existing micro usb mandate.

When would this mandate be changed? After the rest of the world has already moved on to Type D?

> Clearly something happened (or didn't happen) which allowed phone manufacturers to ignore the existing micro usb mandate.

There was never a Micro-USB mandate, I've been replying to a bunch of comments around here that claim that such a mandate existed.

You can check for yourself, it was just a recommendation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply

> When would this mandate be changed? After the rest of the world has already moved on to Type D?

The EU has already passed multiple recommendations previously about mobile phone port standardization. They were all passed in a reasonable amount of time. Moreover, this mandate was also passed in a reasonable amount of time.

Therefore, I have reason to believe that future mandates regarding mobile phone port charging will also be passed in a reasonable amount of time.

In all fairness, why do Android devices not have to use Micro-USB now?

If they were mandated to do so by law, what were the conditions that have presumably un-bound them now?

Or are they all violating the Micro-USB law but being allowed to do so because it's obviously the common-sense thing to do?

I'm not from the EU, but could they include a Micro <-> Type C adapter with the phone to skirt the mandate?

When the law enforces a standard it is very likely to stick around even if better alternatives exist.