The iPhone USB-C Law: Explained! — Transcript

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1. 0:10- All right, so it definitely feels
2. 0:11like we get these headlines
3. 0:12like every couple months.
4. 0:15But this latest round, this version feels pretty firm.
5. 0:18Like Apple is going to make a USB-C iPhone.
6. 0:21A USB-C iPhone is finally confirmed.
7. 0:24Except, is it, actually?
8. 0:28I've had to resist our urge to make a video about this
9. 0:30for as long as this has been talked about,
10. 0:32for months and months,
11. 0:33but now there's actually something concrete to talk about,
12. 0:34so let's address it.
13. 0:36So it's been brewing for a while,
14. 0:37but the background info
15. 0:38is that the European Union has passed legislation
16. 0:40requiring all phones and gadgets sold in the EU
17. 0:45to have a USB-C port.
18. 0:47It standardizes one port across everything,
19. 0:49which includes, of course, the iPhone,
20. 0:50which is currently not USB-C.
21. 0:53And this pass with flying colors, by the way, 602 to 13.
22. 0:56So then this past week,
23. 0:57Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal
24. 0:59was talking to some Apple people on stage about it.
25. 1:01She had Apple's Craig Federighi and Greg Joz,
26. 1:03and she asked them about this ruling.
27. 1:05And Joz gives this pretty winding, long-winded answer
28. 1:10about how the government
29. 1:11shouldn't be making these types of rules
30. 1:13and creates a lot of e-waste potentially
31. 1:15but then eventually ends with,
32. 1:17"We don't want to, but we'll comply."
33. 1:20- Obviously, we'll have to comply.
34. 1:22We have no choice as we do around the world
35. 1:24to comply to local laws.
36. 1:26- And boom, of course, cue the headlines.
37. 1:28"Apple confirms the iPhone is getting USB-C."
38. 1:32"Apple Says iPhones Will Finally Get USB-C Ports."
39. 1:34"Apple confirms iPhones will get USB Type-C charging."
40. 1:38But, he didn't actually say that.
41. 1:41Like, again, let's keep in mind, let's remember,
42. 1:43these are very well-media-trained Apple executives
43. 1:47doing a public interview.
44. 1:48They're being very careful with their words.
45. 1:50They specifically said they will comply,
46. 1:53not that they will make a USB-C iPhone.
47. 1:57And there is a big difference.
48. 1:58So you can actually pull up and read the document
49. 2:00with the exact law that's been passed,
50. 2:03that they're all referring to data.consilium.europa.eu.
51. 2:07I'll link it below the Like button
52. 2:09if you wanna check it out for yourself.
53. 2:10It's very long.
54. 2:10But on page 27, it gets into the exact details
55. 2:13of what it's mandating as far as charging.
56. 2:15So to save you the time, it basically says,
57. 2:16for these categories here, including smartphones
58. 2:20if a device is capable of being charged via wired charging,
59. 2:24it shall have a USB-C port
60. 2:27and be able to be charged by a USB-C cable.
61. 2:29And the press release from the European Parliament says
62. 2:31that this will be in effect
63. 2:33by the end of the calendar year 2024.
64. 2:35And I'm with Dave2D on this one.
65. 2:39Apple never specifically said
66. 2:41that they will make a USB-C iPhone.
67. 2:43They would never say that,
68. 2:45but I also don't think they ever will.
69. 2:47See, first of all,
70. 2:48when they switched to Lightning on that iPhone 5
71. 2:50back in the day, it was genuinely an innovation.
72. 2:52It was a much smaller port
73. 2:53which let them push plenty of power and data for the time.
74. 2:56And that opened up way more room inside the phone
75. 2:59than the outgoing ancient 30-pin could allow.
76. 3:01So yes, people were mad for a few months
77. 3:03about having to get a new charging cable, sure,
78. 3:05but pretty quickly everyone sort of just adopted
79. 3:09and accepted Lightning for the iPhone.
80. 3:11And then Apple made
81. 3:12what's called the Made for iPhone program or MFI,
82. 3:14which basically means they get a cut
83. 3:16of every certified Lightning accessory
84. 3:19that anyone ever sells.
85. 3:22So you wanna make a Lightning accessory
86. 3:23that plugs into the iPhone
87. 3:24and have it be taken seriously at all,
88. 3:27well, you'll need to get it certified,
89. 3:28and then it's certified MFI, Made for iPhone,
90. 3:30and that'll be 10% off the top of every unit,
91. 3:33straight to Apple.
92. 3:34Thank you very much.
93. 3:35Like just this MFI program
94. 3:36has made Apple millions and millions of dollars
95. 3:39over the years thanks to the Lightning port.
96. 3:40But now it's 2022, it's been almost a decade.
97. 3:44And Lightning is kind of an old, outdated port
98. 3:47at this point.
99. 3:48We've moved on,
100. 3:49we've gotten much better charging speeds and data speeds,
101. 3:52and so Lightning kind of sucks now.
102. 3:55So Apple has been working towards their next jump,
103. 3:58but their next jump wasn't planned to be USB Type-C.
104. 4:02Their next jump was planned to be to no port at all.
105. 4:06Yeah, that's correct.
106. 4:07They've been moving towards removing the port
107. 4:09from the iPhone entirely.
108. 4:11I have a whole video about this.
109. 4:12I highly recommend watching it after this one.
110. 4:14I'll make it the first link below.
111. 4:16But yes, Apple would rather just get rid
112. 4:18of the port entirely than switch to USB Type-C.
113. 4:21I always wonder how they'll address it on stage.
114. 4:23Like I imagine they'll have the little moment
115. 4:25where they're like,
116. 4:26"How much do you really use the charging port on your phone?
117. 4:27And it's taking up precious space inside the phone.
118. 4:30And hey, we've had the courage
119. 4:33to invent this incredible new charging technology, MagSafe.
120. 4:37Now MagSafe is fine.
121. 4:40In 2022, it's okay.
122. 4:42It doesn't fix the slow data speed problem,
123. 4:44but it does slap onto the back of the phone with magnets
124. 4:46and charge at 15 watts.
125. 4:48And I think Apple has wanted MagSafe
126. 4:50to sort of grow and evolve a little bit faster than it has,
127. 4:52and it kind of hasn't.
128. 4:53But now with this new hard-coded deadline imposed by the EU,
129. 4:57they will have the next iPhone, the 2023 iPhone 15,
130. 5:02and the next iPhone after that, the 2024 iPhone 16
131. 5:07to really push MagSafe
132. 5:09before the next iPhone after the deadline, the iPhone 17,
133. 5:14can go portless.
134. 5:15So now it becomes very easy to see a world
135. 5:17where Apple stops giving you a Lightning cable
136. 5:21with the newest iPhones,
137. 5:22but just starts giving everyone
138. 5:23just the MagSafe wireless charging puck in the box,
139. 5:26and that's it.
140. 5:27Just to get people used to wireless charging
141. 5:29for two whole years before the transition
142. 5:31is just like, yeah,
143. 5:32this is how we charge all our phones now.
144. 5:33In so far as they're capable
145. 5:35of being recharged via wired charging, USB Type-C.
146. 5:40Oh, they'll comply.
147. 5:41They'll comply, all right.
148. 5:42That was a smart reply.
149. 5:43But yeah, if it doesn't charge via wired charging at all,
150. 5:47then they don't need a USB-C port.
151. 5:50But the iPhone isn't the only Lightning thing
152. 5:52that Apple makes by the way.
153. 5:53There's some other accessories that they make
154. 5:54that are also on this list.
155. 5:56Apple's Magic Keyboard, the Magic Mouse,
156. 5:59and AirPods all also charge with Lightning right now.
157. 6:02So they will have now also until 2024
158. 6:05to get that transition going to either switch to USB-C
159. 6:09or be portless,
160. 6:10and they've also already kind of started that transition.
161. 6:12You might have noticed
162. 6:13that the new Apple TV Siri remote charges by USB-C this year
163. 6:17instead of Lightning like it was previously.
164. 6:19And of course the new AirPods cases all charge via Lightning
165. 6:21but also have added MagSafe compatible wireless charging.
166. 6:25And it would feel pretty easy
167. 6:26for them to get rid of that Lightning port
168. 6:27in the next two years.
169. 6:28So the real question is,
170. 6:30will MagSafe be advanced enough by then
171. 6:34for people to not go insane?
172. 6:35Well, will it actually,
173. 6:36'cause the point is
174. 6:37it should actually be better than Lightning.
175. 6:39For them to move on and move forward from Lightning,
176. 6:41it should be a technological advancement.
177. 6:44And that's actually the point.
178. 6:45And that gets us back to that original spiel
179. 6:47that Joz made that I skipped through earlier.
180. 6:49Because as much as it it is very much Apple PR,
181. 6:53self-serving corporate talk,
182. 6:55I actually agree with almost, almost everything
183. 7:00that he says there.
184. 7:01Because what he's saying is basically
185. 7:02that we're fine with the government making regulation
186. 7:06with a positive end goal in mind, right?
187. 7:09But they shouldn't be so prescriptive
188. 7:11with exactly how to do that, technologically speaking.
189. 7:14That part should be up to the engineers and the innovators
190. 7:17at these companies to figure out.
191. 7:19So if the government has a good idea in tech,
192. 7:22which can happen sometimes,
193. 7:23like, for example, wanting hearing impaired people
194. 7:26to be able to use smartphones, then great, fine.
195. 7:30Then let the companies actually figure out a way
196. 7:33to make their phones compatible with hearing aids
197. 7:35and then work on that tech and make it better over time.
198. 7:38That way everybody wins and the tech actually improves.
199. 7:40So because they're mandating USB Type-C
200. 7:43for all wired charging devices now,
201. 7:45it can feel kind of like a win
202. 7:47because Lightning kind of sucks and this is better,
203. 7:50but we're already kind of pushing the envelope
204. 7:52of USB Type-C.
205. 7:53That's not exactly new either,
206. 7:54and we're getting like 200 watt charging in smartphones now
207. 7:58and super high, fast data speeds.
208. 8:00Eventually in a couple years,
209. 8:02we're gonna move on
210. 8:03to something even better than USB Type-C.
211. 8:05And then what?
212. 8:06So I don't really want to hear about the environment
213. 8:08and e-waste from Apple of all people.
214. 8:11Like I get that a lot of people have Lightning cables
215. 8:13and that's what you love about Lightning,
216. 8:16but that never stopped you
217. 8:17from changing all the other stuff to USB Type-C.
218. 8:19So really the behind the scenes problem
219. 8:20is the government being so prescriptive
220. 8:23as to require USB Type-C
221. 8:26instead of just giving an overall goal
222. 8:28like unified charging standards to reduce e-waste.
223. 8:32And maybe the the law can update over time
224. 8:35to keep up with the tech,
225. 8:36but how much do you trust that to happen?
226. 8:38So in conclusion, hey, I'll take a USB-C iPhone
227. 8:42if that ends up being what happens out of this,
228. 8:44but it's probably not gonna be what happens.
229. 8:47And again, we'll see,
230. 8:48but it can feel like a win
231. 8:50because USB-C is better than Lightning right now.
232. 8:54But that's just in the short term.
233. 8:56And I think in the long term it's pretty clear,
234. 8:58Apple's got a lot of time
235. 8:59to think about how they're gonna get theirs.
236. 9:02But hey, when wires wane, (soft music)
237. 9:05wireless will win.
238. 9:08Thanks for watching.
239. 9:10Catch you guys in the next one.
240. 9:11Peace.