Also interesting that the EU proposal would require devices to be available without a power brick. Apple was ahead of the curve on that one. 
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Haa haaa. Apple saw that coming years back. In the name of Environment they sold that to public. 
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Per Ars Technica:
There have already been several credible reports that Apple is considering dropping the charging port from the iPhone entirely in future models, instead opting to rely on wireless charging based on both the Qi standard and the company’s MagSafe tech. The proposed legislation would not prevent that.
Dunno. Could a portless iPhone be charged with a standard USB-C charger? Would Apple want to include a MagSafe disk in every device they sell in Europe?
IMO they are trying to protect their consumers. As I understand it, at one time Apple needed the lightning port because a suitable connection wasn’t available. Now it is inferior to the USB-C connection and Apple alone knows why it still exists.
I’m all for simplicity and TBH, I am no big fan of the Lightning cables. They constantly break or just stop working, and it’s frankly emberrassing that Apple can’t seem to produce reliable cables. I NEVER had that issue with ANY sort of cheap USB cable.
However, the issue I see with this is that we may lock in the USB-C form factor and will delay the introduction of new and improved options. Lock in is what happened to the QWERTY keyboard, a design optimized to slow down typing so the mechanical arms of the typewriter could keep up, and we’re still using it. USB-C / Thunderbolt is fine for now, but as we all know, bandwidth requirements tend to increase over time. It won’t drive my future setup of three 16K Super UHD monitors at 240Hz, will it?
The possible future “portless” phone is easily charged by a Qi-style charging puck, magnetic or otherwise, with a USB-C input.
“The possible future “portless” phone is easily charged by a Qi-style charging puck, magnetic or otherwise, with a USB-C input.•
Will this benefit or relax the burden of the consumers from carrying two types of charging devices. Which is the whole point of this thread. Unique method of charging for phones.
For portless phones to be a reality in EU it looks like every charging device should be port-less. This is absurd.
I’m reminded of the local laws (in parts of the U.S. at least) requiring automobiles to travel through town preceded by someone on foot carrying a colored flag, to provide sufficient warning to everyone else.
I don’t love the idea of a single mandated charging port. But I also don’t think it’ll last long in the real world. Time will tell, of course.
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I get this logic - but by the same token, all the customers who currently have lots of Apple chargers (and docks, etc.) will have to re-buy all those cables too. Because even if Apple ships a cheapo adapter in the box, that’ll likely wear out rather quickly.
And that’s not just in Europe - that’ll be worldwide, unless for some reason Apple decides to double their iPhone SKUs and produce two separate versions of everything.
Not defending the lightning port - just musing about the wisdom of legislatively mandating a switch like this.
Isn’t Qi inherently energy-inefficient? And doesn’t Qi charging cause more rapid battery degradation due to the heat generated?
I know the differences may not be huge on a per-device basis, but multiply that across hundreds of millions of smart devices and seems to me that going from cables to Qi universally would be a net loss for anybody trying to make the case for eco-friendly devices.
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Jiminy Cricket, you know basic users need to have an interest in this stuff as it starts getting a wee bit technical. But, on second thought, those people at Apple are darn smart and can probably resolve it so the average user need not understand!
Yes Wireless charging is the most in-efficient and slowest form of charging. Totally against it. But who can educate legislative law makers. Now you will see lot of iPhones exploding due to heat issues with cheap substandard USB C cables. Yes a $1 cable to charge a $1000 phone and smell some smoke 
Yeah…iPhones don’t work if you let the magic smoke out. 
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There’s also plenty of cheap lightning cables to choose from, and I would think Apple has some technical voodoo in their circuits to protect their devices.
Because if an iPhone explodes or catches fire, etc. it will be front page news and Apple will get the blame. And even if they are later cleared of liability the only thing most people will remember is someone’s iPhone blew up.
Very true. Well said
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I fondly remember when EU wanted to make micro-usb the standard for charging devices…
If you go trough a couple of links in the can article you get to this January 2020 EU Parliament news that refers to the 2014 Radio Equipment Directive.
We’ll see if they succede this time 
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Legislation like this is always short-sighted. Legislation always lags behind technological innovation, by necessity, and functionally stifles it. In a situation like this there is no way to make good legislation that “protects the consumer” (which isn’t really protection but probably more about some boomer politician annoyed that he can’t keep his cables straight) while at the same time allows for the full range of future innovation in the technology. This sort of legislative micromanagement should itself be made illegal.
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A portless iPhone will be a major problem for the millions of cars that are equipped with cable-only AirPlay. Wireless AirPlay is not ubiquitous in new cars today - not to say that it can’t appear on more cars over the next 3 years (heck, my '21 Ram has regular AirPlay while some '22s will support wireless - but there’s no upgrade path for me aside from a dongle or replacing the truck), but look at how long it’s taken to get AirPlay support in large numbers of cars in general.
I doubt Apple will let this hold them back, and they’ll gladly sell me a $99 Wireless AirPlay dongle I can plug into a USB-A port on my truck in 2024 to go with my iPhone 16.
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Or even more likely Logitech or one of their friendlier suppliers will make the dongle, and Apple will just put it on the shelf in their stores. 
Samsung seems to have faired well after their exploding phone debacle, although it cost them a few billion dollars.
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