Recently, a new regulation of the European Union on a unified charging interface has put Apple Inc at the forefront of the storm.

Unlike almost all other Android phone manufacturers using the USB Type-C charging interface, Apple Inc has insisted on equipping the iPhone with a dedicated Lightning interface for many years and has been an opponent of a unified charging interface.

Slow charging and incompatible with other devices, the Lightning interface not only brings inconvenience to users, but also produces more e-waste, which runs counter to the environmental protection concept advocated by Apple Inc.

A number of experts pointed out that high accessories and MFi certification fees have brought a lot of profits for Apple Inc, which is the fundamental reason why Apple Inc is unwilling to unify the charging interface. If Apple Inc finally complies with the new EU rules, the annual loss could exceed 10 billion yuan.

Did Apple Inc cry? Tens of billions of profits may be lost every year

Lightning interface was born in 2012, support for both forward and reverse plug can work properly, at that time, the launch of this interface is undoubtedly a great progress. However, ten years later, with the rapid development of data transmission technology, Apple Inc still insists on using this interface.

At present, including Samsung, Huawei, OPPO, vivo, XIAOMI and other mainstream Android phone manufacturers almost all use the USB Type-C charging interface, Apple Inc has become a maverick existence.

Yan you, a researcher at Xingtu Institute of Finance, believes that Apple Inc has always been an opponent of a unified charging interface, and there are complex reasons behind it.

The reason given by Apple Inc is that first, forcing the industry to adopt the same charging specification through administrative instructions will hinder innovation, and it should be left to the market to choose which charging interface to use. multiple charging specifications and protocols may lead to the development of more and more advanced charging equipment. Second, environmental protection, the existing Lighting accessories are not compatible with general standards, and at present, in different industries in the market, such as musical instrument tuning peripherals, DJ peripherals and other music fields, there are a large number of peripheral equipment, as well as the old Apple Inc stock equipment, once the new charging interface is switched, these devices are bound to be abandoned, and some charging equipment will also face elimination, causing harm to the environment. Other reasons may include that the Type-C interface is larger than the Lighting, which takes up internal space for consumer electronics, and the mold needs to be replaced, so the loss outweighs the gain.

However, more importantly, this industrial chain alone has brought huge benefits to Apple Inc. By charging MFi (Made For iOS) authorization certification fees, the annual profit may exceed 10 billion yuan, so Apple Inc will not give up such a huge cake, which may be the most important and deeper reason.

This time, the new EU rules will force Apple Inc to give up the Lighting interface and adopt a more general Type-C interface, which will make Apple Inc lose a high source of authorized profits.

Tony Fadell, a former vice president of Apple Inc and father of iPod, expressed support for the new EU rules on social platforms, saying it was not a problem for Apple Inc and should have been done a long time ago. He further pointed out that there is no technical reason for Apple Inc to refuse unless they continue to stand in the position of monopolists to hinder sustained innovation.

In addition to affecting Apple Inc's profits, manufacturers of Apple Inc accessories will also be affected.

Jing you believes that if Apple Inc eventually follows the law, it means that hundreds of millions of Apple Inc equipment and manufacturers will be affected, but it may not be a negative impact. On the one hand, Apple Inc accessories manufacturers no longer need to hand in certification fees and after a long certification period, on the other hand, the manufacturing process of USB-C interface has been extremely mature, the transformation may not take long, perhaps there is no labor pains period.

Yuan Bo, a senior communications engineer and strategic planning expert, believes that this is a mixed blessing for enterprises that produce Apple Inc accessories. The good news is that Apple Inc accessories do not have to pay high authorization and certification fees, and the production cost is reduced. It will also make Apple Inc's accessories market more prosperous. But the worry is, due to the uniqueness of the Lighting interface, Apple Inc accessories profits have always been high, if the future Apple Inc mobile phones use Type-C, virtually lower the Apple Inc accessories manufacturing threshold, the traditional Apple Inc accessories enterprises will have a certain impact.

Did the user laugh? Nearly 90% of netizens expressed their support.

Many users welcome the new EU rules. "finally, someone is in charge," and "I hope that China will also give Apple Inc a notice that if it wants to be listed and sold, it must be changed to Type-C."

In a survey conducted by Weibo Corp, nearly 90 per cent of netizens agreed that a unified standard was a good thing, only 7 per cent disapproved and thought it should be left to the market to decide, while others thought it did not matter.

In Yuan Bo's view, the unified charging interface market is the general trend, on the one hand, it can be convenient for users, on the other hand, from the perspective of environmental protection, it is conducive to the reuse of charging lines, and the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. It is also believed that the iPhone will increase the data transmission rate and fast charging power after switching to the USB-C interface.

At present, the transmission speed of Lightning interface is only the level of USB 2.0. in terms of transmission efficiency, the transmission efficiency of USB interface is definitely lower than that of USB 3.0. theoretically, the maximum transmission rate of USB 3.0can reach 5.0Gbps, while USB 2.0can only achieve 480Mbps. In addition, the charging power of the model with USB 3.0 interface will also be higher.

In fact, Apple Inc has made changes in some products, although iPhone and AirPods still insist on using the ightning interface, Mac and iPad products have basically completed the conversion of the USB-C interface.

However, some users have expressed concern about the new rule. First, the compatibility problem, although they are all USB-C interfaces, the charging protocols between different manufacturers are not common, which will lead to other mobile phone manufacturers' fast chargers may not be able to fast charge iPhone. Some users even pointed out that without MFi authentication, would Apple Inc do another USB-C authentication? In this way, the soup will not be changed.

The second is the strength of Apple Inc's compliance. Although the EU has passed the bill, will Apple Inc use the USB-C interface only in the European market and continue to use the Lighting interface in other countries?

Will China follow suit?

According to data released by market research firm Canalys, in the second quarter of 2022, the top five Chinese mainland mobile phone manufacturers by shipments were vivo, Glory, OPPO, XIAOMI and Apple Inc, of which Apple Inc had a market share of 15% and was one of the few brands to keep growing.

Apple Inc, who plays an important role in China, will be converted to USB-C interface, which will undoubtedly have a great impact on the experience of domestic users.

In fact, the unification of charging interface has been promoted in China.

Earlier, NetEase, Inc CEO Ding Lei, a member of the CPPCC National Committee, put forward a proposal on unifying standard ports for chargers for smart electronic devices to further reduce e-waste and help carbon neutralization. In January this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology responded to the proposal, affirming the direction of the proposal, and said that after users changed equipment, most of the original chargers and data cables were idle, resulting in huge waste. In the next step, we will jointly promote the formulation of relevant national standards in conjunction with the General Administration of Market Supervision, promote the construction of a dual standard system, and speed up the construction of a standard system based on government promulgation and coordinated development of market standards. give full play to the leading and normative role of charging technical group standards.

Wang you believes that China is one of Apple Inc's most important markets and has always abided by the rules of the Chinese market. This new regulation of the European Union is of great significance for unifying domestic charging interface standards. After all, this is also the first time in the world to regulate the standardization of charging interfaces in the form of law. Many domestic consumer electronics manufacturers have also established a charging agreement standard alliance to promote the unification of charging agreements from the industry itself. On the other hand, our country can also take the industry as the lead, guide the unification of the charging interface through the laws and regulations of the industry nature, and then force the unification through legislation when the time is ripe or necessary.

The domestic unified charging interface may not be far away.