Hacker News Reader

> How does a company change to a new/better connector, if it's required by law to use an old connector?

EU is pushing for "One charger for all" for a long time. Here is an article from 2011 [1], so this is nothing new. I don't think they enforced it at the time, but the manufacturers (and the EU?) agreed to use Micro USB. Now they are going for USB-C, so they definitely are not in the way of innovation. I think if there is an agreement between manufacturers to support a new standard, it will be adapted.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/apple/2011/10/4/2469886/apple-relea...

This is not correct.

Phone manufacturers signed a non-binding MoU, agreeing to use Micro USB. This was completely voluntary. That is why they were able to upgrade to USB-C without any issue.

This law is different. It would be illegal to upgrade to a better port. And the barrier to creating, testing, and having adoption for a new port just became way higher than it was before.

> So my new question is: How does a company change to a new/better connector, if it's required by law to use an old connector?

It would be like a nation state deciding to change its standard electric socket, like a country with US sockets switching to EU sockets. Doesn’t sound easy.

> If there was a government mandate requiring phones to have whatever connector came before micro USB, wouldn't that have prevented the Android phones from changing connectors/choosing the new innovation?

Dunno, we have a test case tho: how'd the Micro-B to USB-C transition go in EU markets?

Happened a while ago, you have to go out of your way to find (new) android phones with Micro-B.

It’s going just fine, from my perspective. Unfortunately I now have three different types of cables (micro-B, USB-C and lightning), and it makes it extra challenging that USB-C is sometimes double ended, sometimes B-to-C. On the other hand, it’s very nice I can charge my new Framework laptop and iPad using the same cable cable and charger.

But it’s going quite quickly, and most of the apple devices I bought recently already have USB-C in one way or another, and the actual problem for me is replacing power banks and chargers so that they support USB-C as well. Most of them assume USB-C == “high power slot”, when I just need a few of them for smaller stuff (AirPods and Apple Watch both came with USB-C cables).

Micro usb was mandatory in europe for phones years ago.

Are you talking about https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply? This wasn't a mandate, it was just a recommendation.

No it was never mandatory only voluntary. There was a threat to make it mandatory but most mobile phone suppliers signed a letter of intent on implementing a common standard (apple included).

This is incorrect. It was a voluntary standard signed on by a non-binding MoU. All Manufacturers were free to "break" the agreement when moving to USB-C. Now they are stuck on USB-C until a new law is written.