Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Highlight:

1, the European Union requires a unified charging interface, Apple will be the biggest victim, in the sales of accessories and MFi license fees, the annual loss may exceed 10 billion yuan.

2. In a Weibo survey, nearly 90 per cent of netizens agreed that a unified standard was a good thing, while only 7 per cent disagreed and thought it should be left to the market to decide.

3. In the domestic market, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is also promoting this matter and will jointly promote the formulation of relevant national standards in conjunction with the General Administration of Market Supervision, and the domestic unified charging interface may not be far away.

Recently, a new regulation on a unified charging interface in the European Union has put Apple at the forefront of the storm. On October 4th the European Parliament overwhelmingly supported the mandatory use of USB-C as a universal charging port for a variety of consumer electronics devices, including iPhone and AirPods, by the end of 2024.

Unlike almost all other Android phone makers that use the USB Type-C charging interface, Apple has insisted on providing a dedicated Lightning port for the iPhone for years and has been an opponent of a unified charging interface.

Slow charging and incompatibility 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.

A number of experts have pointed out that high accessories and MFi certification fees have brought a lot of profits to Apple, which is the root cause of Apple's reluctance to unify the charging interface. If Apple eventually complies with the new EU rules, it could lose more than 10 billion yuan a year.

Did Apple cry? The Lightning interface was born in 2012 and can be plugged back and forth. At that time, the launch of this interface was undoubtedly a great progress. However, ten years later, with the rapid development of data transmission technology, Apple still insists on using this interface.

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

Jing you, a researcher at the Xingtu Institute of Finance, believes that Apple has always been an opponent of a unified charging interface for complex reasons.

The reason given by Apple 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 devices. 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 devices, as well as old Apple stock devices. Once the new charging interface is switched, these devices are bound to be abandoned, and the old 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, and the annual profit may exceed 10 billion yuan by charging MFi (Made For iOS) license fees, so Apple 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 to abandon the Lighting interface and adopt a more general-purpose Type-C interface, which will deprive Apple of a high source of licensed profits.

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

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

Yu you believes that if Apple eventually complies with the law, it will mean that hundreds of millions of Apple devices and manufacturers will be affected, but it may not be a negative impact. On the one hand, Apple accessories manufacturers no longer need to hand in certification fees and go through a long certification period, on the other hand, the manufacturing process of USB-C interface has been extremely mature, and the transformation may not take long, or there may be no labor pains.

Yuan Bo, a senior communications engineer and strategic planning expert, believes that this is a mixed blessing for enterprises that produce Apple accessories. The good news is that Apple accessories do not have to pay high licensing and certification fees, and production costs are reduced. It will also make Apple's accessories market more prosperous. But the worry is that because of the uniqueness of the Lighting interface, Apple accessories have always made high profits. If Apple phones use Type-C in the future, it will virtually lower the threshold for the manufacture of Apple accessories, which will have a certain impact on traditional Apple accessories companies.

Did the user laugh? Nearly 90% of netizens expressed support for the new EU rules, and many users welcomed the new EU rules. "finally, someone is in charge," he said. "I hope China will also inform Apple that it must be changed to Type-C if it is to be listed and sold."

In a Weibo survey, nearly 90 per cent of netizens agreed that a unified standard was a good thing, only 7 per cent disagreed 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 has made changes in some products, although iPhone and AirPods still insist on using the Lightning 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 certification, Apple will have another USB-C certification. In this way, the soup will not be changed.

The second is the strength of Apple's compliance. Although the EU has passed the bill, will Apple 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 handset makers by shipments were vivo, Glory, OPPO, Xiaomi and Apple, of which Apple had a 15% market share and was one of the few brands to keep growing.

Whether Apple, which plays an important role in China, will be converted to USB-C interface 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 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's most important markets and has always abided by the rules of games in the Chinese market. This new regulation of the European Union is of great significance for unifying domestic charging interface standards. After all, this is 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.

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