The EU Won’t Stop Apple From Making a Port-Free iPhone. That Doesn’t Mean the Company Will
Starting from six months iPhone 16 releasedrumors began to emerge about what Apple had reserved for us in September this year, when the company announced its 2025 flagship store Telephone. At the top of the list and on the trend, it may be iPhone 17 Airwhich can not only be a super budget, but also has no charging port.
one Perceived obstacles Making tenant-free iPhones is due to rules surrounding universal chargers, EU regulations may make it impossible. Actually, this is not the case, because 9to5mac Report Confirmed with CNET today. According to European Commission spokesman Federica Miccoli, Apple is free to make portless iPhones and can only charge any fees with wireless Magsafe chargers. The company did not respond to a request for comment on whether an iPhone without a charging port has been considered.
If you keep iPhone Users have been longer than in the past year or so, and there is no doubt that you will remember the now extinct lightning cable. Apple is forced Give up its proprietary charging technology For iPhones, thanks to EU rules that came into effect last year, this suggests that all small portable electronic devices with charging ports must be compatible with the same type of charger: USB-C.
This does not mean the device must However, USB-C is compatible. The European Commission’s guidance on the Common Charger directive issued last year says it’s good for companies to sell phones and other devices that can only be charged via wireless charging methods. So there might be a wired charger to rule them, but Apple can completely opt out if it is chosen.
But will it? This is possible, but it may not – for some reason, start with the company’s current design priorities.
“When Jony Ive led the design at Apple, it always felt like an iPhone without a port or button was the endgame,” Wood said. “His minimalist approach to product development saw Apple remove the “home” button and SIM card slot in the United States, and now the iPhone only works with ESIM.” Wood added that things have changed since Ive left, pointing to the camera control buttons on the iPhone 16.
If anything, recent iPhones and their bulky camera modules are less than previous iPhones. Although the phone has been getting This year has been consistentat some point, the phone manufacturer is limited by the fact that the minimum size of the USB-C port is 2.6mm. No matter how much they can flatten the rest of the phone, it is impossible to compress the port.
This is not to say that if technological breakthroughs are allowed, Apple doesn’t want to revert to the IVE’s minimalist design trend, but now it’s willing to make small tradeoffs to prioritize features, including the upper-level camera.
Even with MAGSAFE charging, the USB-C port still plays a crucial role in the iPhone. It’s not just charging. Wireless data transfers or software updates sometimes fail, and when this happens, it is irreplaceable to plug your iPhone into your laptop. Without that port, you won’t have a backup when other methods fail, which could make your $1,000+ device a beautiful but functionally useless metal and glass plate.
“Given that in the event of a software failure, any company has to delete any company in the short term, it is difficult to delete this port in the short term,” Wood said.
An iPhone without a charging port sounds desirable in theory – a seamless design that combines (presumably) better water and dust resistance. But unless Apple has some tech wizard on its sleeve, it can overcome potential drawbacks, it doesn’t seem likely that we’ll see a USB-C-free iPhone anytime soon.
