Apple will comply with iPhone USB-C charger law, executive says

Apple will need to comply with a European Union law to switch the iPhone to a USB-C charger, marketing chief Greg Joswiak said on Tuesday.

Mr Joswiak said the company will comply as it does with other laws. He declined to specify when the iPhone may get the charger to replace lightning. He made the comments at a Wall Street Journal conference in Laguna Beach, California.

He said Apple and the EU had been at odds over chargers for a decade, recalling how European authorities once wanted Apple to adopt Micro-USB. He said that neither lightning — the current iPhone charging port — nor the now-ubiquitous USB-C would have been invented if that switch had occurred.

Apple is planning to switch the iPhone to USB-C next year, Bloomberg News has reported. The law goes into effect in 2024. Apple has already moved its Macs, many iPads and accessories to USB-C from lightning and other connectors.

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Mr Joswiak joined Snap founder Evan Spiegel at the gathering in dismissing the idea that the virtual world known as the metaverse will be the future of computing. The metaverse is a “word I’ll never use”, Mr Joswiak said.

Mark Zuckerberg has poured billions of dollars into the effort and gone so far as to change Facebook’s corporate name to Meta Platforms.

In terms of other Apple product changes, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice-president of software engineering, was asked if the Mac will ever get a touchscreen.

“Who’s to say? he replied.

In another area of controversy, Mr Federighi said an Android version of iMessage — the messaging service on Apple products — would hold back innovation across iMessage on iOS. Apple wouldn’t be able to invest heavily into an Android version.

Mr Federighi and Mr Joswiak both argued that Apple has benefited from getting employees to return to the office — a step many tech companies have resisted because of worker pushback.

The pandemic caused a lot of people to feel disconnected, Mr Federighi said, and the company was much more effective when everyone is back together. Apple’s culture has long been about being in the same place together, he added. — Bloomberg