Product design doesn't need to be written into law.
Please stop repeating that argument, it's not true. There's periodic review proces built in into this legislation.
>attempted to enforce a similar mandate for micro-USB back in the day - can you imagine if they succeeded?
That would be great. Probably Apple would transition to the USB-C a few years ago with everyone instead current nonsense.
Lightning originated when there was a talk about mandating micro-USB and finally died, after 11 years, when USB-C was mandated. If not for that legislation it would still be alive.
It's actually faster that way.
Now it will be a chicken and egg problem. No one will want to put a new connector in phones, because they'd need usb c too anyways. So no new standard will emerge with wide enough industry support. If the micro usb "mandate" was as binding and restrictive as this one, we would not have had usb c.
This is why the USB Implimentation Forum exists. If you want to put a new connector in phones, do it; just do it through the proper, standardized and official channels. If every manufacturer had their own competing charging standard, we would be back to square 1 with 15 different ways to route serial data and 15w of juice. As companies like Apple have so gratefully demonstrated, most companies tend to invent those chargers for licensing royalties rather than a willingness to push the envelope on charging or data transfer technology.
And plus... it's a serial cable. The demand for "research and development" has remained the same since they figured out how to flatten the type B connector. You can't fool anybody by releasing a 'new and improved' cable or connector that is just the same serial bus with proprietary mumbo-jumbo on top.
And this sums up the issue perfectly. “I don’t want improvements. I want design by committee least common denominator”
I think I'll give EU a chance before I will agree that they created bottle neck by this legislation.
The EU just mandated a charging standard. It didn’t mandate that Apple go whole hog implementing the USB 3.1 protocol including video over USB C - all things that the typical Android phone doesn’t do.
When do you think mobile devices will be limited by USB-C? Another 20 years? Is it worth for you to allow mess, vendor locks and ripping of customers for another quarter of century, because some magic connector that solves problem we don't know exists can be delayed by 2-3 years? Really?
Anti-competitive practices from corporations delay progress way more than that.
If micro usb was enforced, USB C in its current form wouldn’t exist.
A periodic review process won't matter. Somebody has to actually research, design and create an alternative. Why would they spend resources on that if their competitors can just decide that they're not allowed to use it?