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joshstrange parent
Apple was bringing USB-C to their entire line well before the EU "mandated" it. They were one of the first to put it on their laptops.
lxgr
Yes, and they even co-developed the standard to my knowledge.

Still they were stubbornly refusing to bring it to their phones, which are their most popular product line by far, until the EU forced their hand.

joshstrange OP
You say "refusing to bring it to their phones", I say they were cautious about changing the port for the second time ever. I'd bet my retirement fund that Apple was going to bring USB-C to the iPhone that year already or at most 1 year later. It was slowly working its way down the line and I understand them being most hesitant about touching their golden goose.

But I understand your viewpoint and, again, I love USB-C (and my iPhone). My biases are absolutely playing into my viewpoint on this. I just don't think they were dragging their feet due to wanting to make more from MFI/Lightning as some suggested, it was mostly just being slow to change something that would annoy people (and the change did annoy many people, even though I don't think they should have been annoyed).

3D30497420
Wasn't Apple super "courageous" when they killed the headphone jack?

I tend to view Apple's actions (and those of any company really) first through the lens of their own self-interest. Killing the headphone jack, which was an open standard, benefited wireless headphones. And, unsurprisingly, Apple's proprietary integration with Airpods help make them the best wireless headphone choice.

While I don't wholly disagree that Apple would have eventually switched to USB-C, I doubt they were slow to migrate out of an abundance of caution. Apple is a huge fan of lock-in, and never gives in to open standards easily.

chuckadams
Apple did switch to USB-C on the iPad, as Lightning was showing its age both in max power draw and data rate. Putting it on phones was inevitable at that point.

I’m not a huge fan of the EU government making specific demands of specific companies to adopt specific technologies, but this is Wi-Fi and telecom tech has a long history of adoption through legislation. So it’s not at all unprecedented and is probably the lesser evil in this case.

ryao
They had usb 3.0 speeds over lightning on some models (e.g. the iPad Pro), but they kept introducing models that were usb 2.0 speed only for no apparent reason other than cost savings on the rest.
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lxgr
The longer they waited, the more (now obsolete) Lightning accessories were produced and sold as a result, no?
Uvix
The longer they waited the longer we could use our existing Lightning accessories we’ve had for years that are now trash and often don’t have good replacements (e.g. docks).
joshstrange OP
We could spend all day debating this back and forth ("What about all the lightning devices that got thrown out due to the new iPhone" - A somewhat silly argument but...) but I think we probably need to just agree to disagree. I absolutely disagree with Apple on a number of things but there is a lot of nuance here IMHO and teasing it out is well-trodden ground.
MaKey
While Apple might have switched to USB-C on their own, they would have done so using propriety cables again. Thankfully the EU thwarted those plans.
joshstrange OP
Citation needed.

There is quite literally no evidence for this theory and mountains of evidence that USB-C is what they were always going to switch to. They had already switched checks note almost every other device they make to USB-C. The few that weren't USB-C at the launch of the iPhone 15 have been moved since then (specifically keyboard and mouse). I'm not sure if there are any Lightning devices left at this point.

MaKey
> There is quite literally no evidence for this theory [...]

There is: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/02/10/apple-planning-to-limit...

Apple was then told by the EU commission to abandon those plans: https://www-heise-de.translate.goog/news/Ansage-der-EU-Kommi...

ryao
Not quite. Apple could have removed the port entirely as a form of malicious compliance. They would have been in compliance with EU regulations without putting USB-C on their phones.

A second option would have been to make lightning a data only port that would not charge phones.

In either case, the reactions to “in order to comply with EU regulations, wired charging capability has been removed from iPhones sold in the EU” would have been hilarious.

gessha
The only thing they had with USB-C were the tablets. Literally everything else came out after the mandate. Apple also didn't communicate any intent on switching their connectors to USB-C.

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