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Comment by ho_schi | Hacker News Reader

The EU is watching the USB-IF for further improvements. Currently it is limited to 100 Watt and common devices like latops and smartphones. And they're watching wireless-charging already. If Apple or some of the other usual suspects (Microsoft, Amazon, Google) tries to push a proprietary technology the can act hopefully quicker.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/QANDA_...

I'm still looking for the part where exceptions are listed and there are already some e.g. for small fitness trackers. They are slow but not necessarily stupid. *Nobody prevents any manufacturer to add additional charging ports.*

TLDR Power plugs across Europe and North America where standardized for decades. And guess what. That stuff works! And YES this new regulations actually implements a new power plug aside from the Europlug, USB Type-C. This is nothing entirely new or crazy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europlug

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I think it is disingenous to compare USB-C to power plugs. USB-C does a million more things than power delivery and there is significantly more room for innovation.

>Nobody prevents any manufacturer to add additional charging ports.

Except for market demands of smaller phones.

My question to you is: would you have wanted micro-USB to be standardized like this?

Micro-USB was standardized like this. And the law included a clause that said it had to be reviewed regularly to keep up with industry progress - which is why it is now switching to USB-C.

This is wrong. The EU issued an MoU and a charging standard which was voluntary. It was nothing more than them asking nicely to please use Micro-B.

This is a law. It's completely different.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply

True, it wasn't legally required - I should have been more careful with that phrasing - but the signatories had a market share of over 80%. It was well-understood that they would be legally forced to if they did not voluntarily comply - which makes the "voluntary" part a bit moot.

> It was well-understood that they would be legally forced to if they did not voluntarily comply - which makes the "voluntary" part a bit moot.

Except, that is not true at all. Every single manufacturer moved to a new, better plug when it became available and faced no repercussions. That is no longer possible.

>Micro-USB was standardized like this.

How many Micro-USB Iphones have been sold in the EU?

USB-C as a connector is fine for many years and backwards compatible improvements are more than possible. Once we outgrown this I’m sure lobby groups will be sitting in Brussels.

> Except for market demands of smaller phones Aren't phones getting larger and larger pretty much every year?

>Aren't phones getting larger and larger pretty much every year?

Not really. And the choice between battery life and a second charging port nobody cares about, because it isn't "the one" is rather obvious.

I believe today's iphones are larger than the first iphones. Am I wrong? Not to mention the Samsung high-end stuff.

What are you even debating here? You said phones get larger every year, they really do not. Although in the past smaller phones have been more common. There is no contradiction.

This also misses the point entirely. The point being, the number of ports decreases the volume available for everything else.

Look at the size of the 3 first iPhone generations for example.

> Except for market demands of smaller phones

So thats why iPhones ate getting bigger?

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