According to foreign media reports, the EU legislature passed a resolution by 582 votes to 40, which aims to promote the action of the European Commission to unify the charging solution of smart phones. Reuters reported that the European Commission is responsible for the drafting of relevant European laws and acts as the law enforcement department, which has been trying to unify the chargers of smart phones for more than a decade.
The resolution pointed out that the spontaneous agreements formed between some scientific and technological enterprises have greatly reduced the types of chargers in circulation, but there is still a lack of common standards in the current industry. Therefore, consumers are faced with different types of chargers in the market. Sometimes they even need to buy new chargers for each device. Wireless charging may be a solution, but the legislature urges the European Commission to pay attention to fragmentation and ensure that the standards eventually adopted are compatible with multiple devices.
The core of the resolution is to reduce the amount of e-waste. In 2016, 12.3 million tons of e-waste were generated in Europe, equivalent to an average of 16.6 kg per resident. The legislature said it could reduce the amount of e-waste by using the same charger for all electronic devices.
Unified charger and charging cable standards will have a huge impact on enterprises using proprietary technology. Apple has a huge number of users, and these devices are very dependent on Lightning charging protocol, so the EU resolution will seriously affect apple. At this week's earnings conference call, apple said it has more than 1.5 billion active devices around the world, a large part of which (about 900 million) are iPhones. Last week, apple opposed the EU initiative, saying that unified chargers would "stifle innovation" and that letting users of existing IOS devices abandon lightning and use usb-c would generate more electronics, which is particularly ironic.
