Ugh no thanks. Lightning is orders of magnitude superior to other current solutions (except cost). If it came to the point where this was actually enforced, I bet Apple would just pay the fines it receives and just continues to use Lightning.
I'll bet that the new EU standard adapts that, rather than enshrining some current solution. In fact, the sort-of-non-mandatory previous EU standard (which was micro-USB) was allowed to expire, since they were working on the next one.
As for whether this is possible - yes, it's certainly possible to require compliance with a certain standard as part of product certification for marketing in the EU. To what extent they want to make it mandatory (extra fees, or outright requirement if you want to market in the EU) - we'll see.
[1] http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/12/04/next-gen-usb-conne...
I do find this odd though. I thought everyone else had standardized on USB-micro because of a previous dictate by the EU. I'm not sure why they're doing it again.
As for why a law now when it worked without it until now
> "The Common EPS Memorandum of Understanding expired at the end of 2012. The European Commission reported that all of the MoU signatories, "have met their obligations under the MoU," but that most of the signatories declined an EC request to extend the MoU beyond 2012"
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_External_Power_Supply
I'm always on the side of standard connections. Which is one of several reasons I never choose Apple products. Having it imposed by law feels vaguely wrong, but Apple's behavior (on this front, and several others) also feels vaguely wrong to me.
I don't think that's the case. First, they were coming off the older 30-pin dock connector. Second, the connector needs to do far more than just syncing and charging. It's also used for video out, audio out, sensor input, and who knows what other future updates. Apple designed Lightning to be very flexible for future use.
Honestly I don't believe that if USB 3 was more common Apple would have gone with it.
USB 3.0 micro plug is order of magnitude inferior to Lightning in arguably the most important part - experience of plugging and unplugging, which you'll do at least twice a day.
Until we can survive on wireless power, I'll take reversible Lightning over that ridiculous oversized Micro-B USB 3.0 (even the name is ridiculous) plug any day.
Basically as usual, it's Apple and everyone else.
I'll stick with my USB charger thanks as it is 100% ubiquitous as I will my Internet Printing Protocol, DLNA (which doesn't even require an Apple box to talk to my TV!) and bluetooth that works properly across all devices I've encountered.
Edit to add: I have 3 Lightning iPads in my house (none are mine personally). The male connectors aren't durable - two dead ones so far. I'm not sure about the sockets either which are way more expensive to replace.
It's not about preferred configuration. It's about not producing tonnes of electronic waste by having to require an unreasonable magnitude of charger and device configurations.
Sony is a good example - look at their MiniDisc fiasco (I owned several MiniDisc devices), or their MemoryStick format.
Just use a open format like SD, and stick to it.
Or look at every single phone manufacturer back in the early 2000's, that had to invent their own (usually) inferior charging standard, in some misguided hope you'd stick with them due to all the chargers you'd bought.
Or the proliferation of laptop charging standards/pins.
Guys - we're delivering power to a portable devices - it's not like we're designing the bloody ISS.
Yes, I can admire the engineering that goes into say, the Lightning adapter being reversible.
But look at all the ridiculousness of Apple's previous 30-pin connector. They could have just used USB. But then the Apple fans goes "But...but....you can't use TV out!". Yeah, well, the Samsung Galaxy II and MHL would disagree with you.
And look at their MagSafe versus MagSafe 2 connectors - they had to change their entire adapter and make it incompatible just to make it what, 2mm thinner?
And even though I don't own an iDevices, I think it's absurd that Apple charges "licensing" fees to use it's connector, and needs to add in "authentication" chips. Really?
This is as bad as inkjet manufacturers like Lexmark putting in authentication chips to their ink catridges.
Same sort of proprietary vendor lock-in nonsense.
I've seen tons of dock connector issues with broken ports, but none with lightning so far.