Technology Daily Push Report
One of the most striking changes in this fall’s iPhone 15 series is the replacement of Type-C interface.
On March 14, the entry “iPhone 15 if limited charging speed or violation of EU law” appeared on Weibo hot search, once again aroused heated discussions among netizens.
According to previous revelations, Foxconn’s Type-C interface products mass-produced for Apple continue to be encrypted, that is, MFi (Made for iPhone) certification is required. Without MFi certification, data transfer and charging speeds are limited.
Apple MFi certification is a kind of logo license used by Apple for external accessories produced by its authorized accessory manufacturers.
That is to say, if you want to plug any accessories including chargers, power adapters and other accessories into the iPhone, you must pass Apple certification, force users to buy more expensive Apple accessories, and refuse to be compatible with Android camp chargers and data cables. Under this model, Apple can charge specific fees to authorized manufacturers to ensure the safety and quality of accessories, and the annual revenue from them can reach tens of billions of yuan.
The MFi-certified Lightning interface has been criticized by consumers due to its shortcomings such as slow charging, poor quality, and incompatibility with other devices. But Apple is reluctant to give up easily, because there is a huge business hidden in it. On October 24 last year, officially approved by the European Council, from 2024, all kinds of mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras and other electronic devices sold in the EU must uniformly use the Type-C charging interface, if the charging voltage is higher than 5V or the current is higher than 3A, it needs to follow the USB PD specification.
The EU also stressed that harmonizing fast charging standards will help prevent different manufacturers from unreasonably limiting charging speeds and ensure that charging speeds are the same when using any compatible charger.
The simple understanding is that as long as the Apple mobile phone supports charging higher than 15W, then the charger compatible with the PD protocol and the data cable must also be charged at the same speed, and Apple has no right to limit the charging speed of users using third-party accessories, and must ensure that the speed of Apple accessories is completely consistent.
If Apple decides to add restrictions to Type-C accessories in the form of MFi, it may be considered illegal by the EU and punished with heavy penalties.
It’s worth noting that the EU doesn’t limit the rate of file transfers, so Apple may also make a fuss about this.
Apple can make official accessories support high-rate file transfer, third-party accessories can only achieve low-rate file transfer, which will have a greater impact on those users who often need to transfer files.
Post time: Mar-15-2023