Democrats are asking the US Commerce Department to standardize charging ports on smartphones and other consumer electronics, a move inspired by similar legislation passed by the EU.
Elizabeth Warren and a handful of other Democrats penned an open letter in which they claimed to be fighting a “planned obsolescence” conspiracy, as if releasing devices with new charging ports made previous-generation devices obsolete.
They also made grossly exaggerated claims about the financial burden of buying chargers and the inconvenience of sometimes not being able to charge your smartphone (citing an EU study that found 38% reported this issue, not mentioning only 21% said it was important). The letter’s only consistent goal – to reduce waste – is something Apple and Samsung are already addressing by no longer shipping phones with charging bricks. (In fact, Apple argued that the law could produce more waste, making accessories obsolete.) The letter ended by urging the Commerce Department to “restore sanity” and “certainty” for consumers.
When similar rules were debated in Europe, Apple warned that they “stifle innovation rather than encourage it”. Cupertino’s appeals were hastily dismissed as cynical, corporate-interested lobbying. However, anyone familiar with Apple’s product development history will know that avoiding industry standards has been key to Apple’s success and has driven the entire world of electronics forward. audience. “Think Different” isn’t just a slogan, it’s a fundamental part of Apple’s DNA.
When Apple announced the iMac in 1998, people were puzzled because it didn’t have a floppy drive. Who uses CDs?! A decade later Apple announced the MacBook Air without a CD drive, people were shocked – who doesn’t use a CD!!? In 2016, Apple replaced USB ports in its MacBook Air line with USB-C and got a similar response: reliance on dongles was chastised and many lamented the loss of trip-resistant magnetic charging ports. from Apple.
Fast forward to 2022 and, ironically, the EU has mandated USB-C charging ports by 2024, with the US potentially following suit. Meanwhile, consumers are celebrating Apple’s reintroduction of “magsafe” magnetic charging ports. Although the EU does not ban Magsafe, since MacBooks also have mandatory USB-C charging ports, consumers will almost certainly opt for Magsafe over mandatory USB-C chargers, rendering the intended effects of the law without object.
“If the federal government had centralized consumer electronics design planning in the way recently proposed, would Apple even exist? Does the iPhone? Or the iPod?”
Similarly, when Apple released a phone without a physical keyboard, competitors scoffed. And when Apple removed the auxiliary input for headphones from the iPhone, people lost their minds.
In the aftermath, Apple’s marketing manager, Phil Schiller, was asked why the reason for the change, he replied: “The reason for moving on: courage. The courage to step forward and do something new that makes us all better. He was reviled, but he was right: that courage made Apple what it is today: the most successful company in history in terms of market capitalization and cultural impact.
If the federal government had centralized consumer electronics design planning in the way recently proposed, would Apple even exist? Does the iPhone? Or the iPod?
I asked Tony Fadell – the man behind the iPod and iPhone – if the iPod would have failed if Apple had been forced to use USB 1.0, rather than its proprietary FireWire cable.
His answer ? The iPod would have flopped.
Why? The first iPod used Apple’s Firewire port, rather than USB, because it could transfer data and charge the battery at convenient speeds, all at the same time. Having to wait hours for music to sync to your iPod and then recharging it from a wall outlet would have been too cumbersome for most users and wouldn’t “work” like all Apple products are known to do.
It’s the kind of thoroughness regulators can’t predict, and it could have a hidden butterfly effect. If the iPod broke, we wouldn’t have the iPhone or the iPad. (Fadell said he doesn’t specifically think the EU laws and proposed US laws are problematic, arguing that faster wireless charging would render the laws irrelevant.)
Fadell’s point on wireless charging hints at a potential unintended consequence of mandating charging ports. While EU law specifies that wired charging devices must use USB-C, will similar laws in the US and other countries be as specific?
Could rules to reduce wire consumption risk banning devices that don’t use wires at all to charge? Short-sighted lawmakers might risk banning a wireless future to reduce wire usage. Would mandatory charging ports see consumers opting for what they know: wired charging rather than wireless?
What about ultra-thin and flexible screens? Or wireless headphones, so small you can’t even see them? A USB-C port is 2.40 millimeters thick, meaning thinner or smaller devices that aren’t just wirelessly rechargeable would be banned.
Regulation is about predictability and familiarity, bringing order out of chaos. Think the same. Innovation is unpredictability and ignorance is thinking differently. Creativity likes constraints, but it doesn’t like rules. When regulations impose means rather than ends, they create a box that is forbidden to think about outside the law.
All legislators should recognize this tension and dynamic.
More generally, the freedom to “think differently” is one of the main reasons why the permissionless nature of market economies breeds innovation. That’s why Apple created Mac OS X and North Korea simply copied it, renaming it “Red Star OS”. This is why China relentlessly copies Western innovation, even making it a key foreign policy tactic. This is why Russia stole its model COVID-19 vaccine and released it as its own, before western regulators approved it.
Thinking differently has not only made Apple great, it has helped progress in the free world. That’s why freedom matters, that’s why freedom creates prosperity, and that’s why Apple products should continue to be “designed by Apple in California” and not “by bureaucrats in Washington, DC.”
