This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
India gave Apple 2.5 years notice. And that doesn’t count the time the legislation was being proposed.
IMHO, it’s totally reasonable to say that newly purchased phones should support USB C, even if the phone’s architecture wasn’t introduced this year.
That sounds very reasonable, I thought they wanted them to retrofit them on phones that were already sold!
Yeah I thought the same, that would be wild.
But for models that are actively being produced, it's fair game.
And on top of that, the tech they're being asked to use is literally a decade old next year.
And apple themselves have been using the tech for over 8 years in other devices of their's.
We all know that the way Apple will do this is to just not sell any version of the iPhone other than the USB-C version. They're not going to add USB-C to old models.
They might. They either need to make newer models cheaper (not going to happen) so they are at a reasonable price point for the Indian market. Or take a cost hit in manufacturing and still sell the old models.
They are not going to devalue their new shit, that's the dumbest thing ever. It would be like a luxury brand slashing their prices on purses, rather than make a small change to their off brand purses to capture the cheaper market. By lowering the price you essentially stop being a luxury.
They could just leave the market entirely, they only have like less than 4 percent market share. Although I guess 4% of a billion is still almost 33% of 50% of 250 million... so nothing to sneeze at (Jesus India is more populated then I remembered)
In this case, I would say – fck Apple. Indians demand is solid. Apples shitty policy of random plugs and industry incompatible chargers shouldn't have been born ever and definetly it shouldn't continue. Usually I'm against regulation by goverment, but in this case it is realy for the benefit of users and enviroment.
It's also not like this snuck up on them. Governments around the world warned them very clearly that they had to get onto a standard. Apple dragged their feet the entire time, fighting it at every opportunity, until it went into law.
I don't know what India's law says, but I suspect it boils down to "All phones sold as new after XXXX date must have a USB-C charger". Apple has the choice to modify the older/cheaper designs, or to stop selling them in that market.
Wouldnt be surprising if they just stop shipping the newer phones then. India isn't the EU, most of their smartphones are cheap and low spec, most of their networks are terrible and small bump they've recently had is stil an incredibly small amount as a whole vs the rest of the Indian market.
If most of India's smartphones are cheap and low spec, then Apple's only market is the older models. They will not be able to sell the newer models.
I'm not sure why you're generally against governmental regulation, typical regulations are written in blood.
I would argue the government seldom goes far enough
It depends on the regulation. Take zoning for example, you definitely don't want a bunch of kids or elderly people living next to dangerous factories, but the laws usually go too far and prevent corner stores in residential areas, or demand way too much parking. Regulation can be good or bad.
The big problem with zoning laws is it's far too difficult to get the zoning redefined.
There's a plot of land near me that's on a high speed road, It is an old residential plot but because of the road no one wants to live there. In the past when the houses were originally built it was a quiet road, but it's been upgraded over the years.
It'll be an excellent place for a small shop, and indeed a local shop in that area is desperately required, but because it's zoned as residential they can't build a shop there. No residential property is ever going to be built there, it's been abandoned for 20 years, if one was going to be built it would have been built by now.
Ever wonder why there's no more reasonable sized pick up trucks in America? CAFE regulations incentivize auto makers to manufacture ginormous trucks. I am pro-regulation in most cases but there are some real stinkers out there.
My mind goes to net neutrality laws debacle for instance. Yes regulation is important to keep companies in check but they can be abused when applied against the consumer.
And then it goes too far on other things, like the Kind Online Safety Act, while not doing basic things to make the lives of their citizens much better, like UBI, or more controls of companies to stop monopolistic behaviour. Basically: more regulation of companies, less regulation of individuals. Although some things still need to be regulated of course for individuals, like enforcement of software licenses.
The answer will be that Apple won’t sell iPhones without USB-C in India at all. Have fun waiting for like, 3 years to buy a relatively inexpensive iOS device.
There's enough supply of inexpensive Android phones that support standard chargers. It's not a problem for consumers if they can't buy older models of iPhones, there are tons of other smartphones.
It definitely hurts Apple to loose out in a market as big as India's. But that's their fault. They had enough time.
There's a fad in India that having an iPhone makes you a sophisticated person.
I have colleagues who've spent more than a whole month's salary over it. They all use WhatsApp instead of Apple Messages, put on a ₹100 cover they got by bargaining at the railway station they commute to everyday for 2 hours, can't afford the wireless charger, and every 3rd person seems to have one - idk what's sophisticated about such an unexclusive device ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If this were a small country, yes that is what would happen. In the second most populous country, I suspect that's too huge of a market to just accept as a loss.
Once a customer leaves the apple ecosystem they're unlikely to return to it. So they would lose those customers forever.
Fun fact for the day: India overtook China as the most populous country at the beginning of this year.
It's a huge market even with a smaller target of people.
Hey everyone, listen I know times are tough, and coming to decisions to streamline production could give you some relief
But, we were really hoping for $2T by 2030, and this really stretches that target thin.
IMO it's a bit unreasonable to demand them go changing the design of older models aswell. I'm happy that they were forced to switch to USB-C on future models, but I'm with Apple on this one.
Well, that's not exactly the demand. The demand is simply that if they wish to sell a product in the country, it meets their regulatory specifications by June 2025. Apple doesn't have to upgrade their older models, they could also simply stop selling them.
But if they wish to sell a product, it must meet the manufacturing requirements of the region in which they wish to sell. Hardly a big deal if you ask me.
Why is it unreasonable?
This isnt demanding apple to retrofit usb-c to old phones. This is telling them to stop producing new phones with lightning, and instead use USB-C.
This is highly relevant for India as it's a price conscious market, and Apple sells a lot more older models than elsewhere, specifically Europe who passed a similar law but on new models only.
And if a student figured out how to add a fully functional usb-c port to an iPhone X, I'm sure apple can figure it out for an iPhone 14.
why? they have more than enough money to do so.
Exactly. They can do whatever they want. Force them to either stop doing business or fix their shit now. And don't get started insulting the mushrooms or cows because even they know better than to feed on them.
I don't think its unreasonable. Apple can afford it and it's better for customers.
Win-win unless you're an Apple investor (which you're not.)
The only people who should care about apple's "happiness" are those who are invested in it.
"Happiness" for a for-profit corporation just means how much they're maximizing profit.
Anything that makes Apple unhappy makes me happy.
Yeah. Could you imagine if this was the norm everywhere?
Crazy how people are always cool with lowering their standards but never cool with raising them.
Because companies like Apple tell them what standards to have.
Boo fucking hoo
I'm usually happy about the things that Apple is unhappy about. And I'm all in so there's no anti-Apple bias.
They want their products to bind but not protect you, I demand they protect but do not bind me. And I'm not one to compromise
If I'm understanding what you wrote, I think you actually are bound to Apple. Most people in the Apple ecosystem aren't going to leave it, because there's too much inertia to overcome to leave it.
India joins the party 🥳
C'mon, they made so much money with their proprietary shit, they could eat their hat on this one (well barely the border of it)
Apple told the regulators that implementing the changes would mean it won't be able to "meet the PLI targets," minutes from the meeting state. PLI, India's Production-Linked Incentive scheme, is a major project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, providing manufacturers with financial incentives for investments and incremental annual phone sales.
The use of USB-C in the iPhone 15 means Apple meets the criteria for the rules with its current-gen hardware. However, the bulk of its sales in India are based around older iPhone generations.
Apple says it can comply with a timeline for compliance by June 2025 if existing models are exempted from the rules. Otherwise, it would need another 18 months beyond 2024 if there isn't an exemption.
I guess fuck apple. They knew legislation and they had 2.5 years. If they can't meet its their problem, pay fines or make usb-c iPhone.
Oh no, not their production targets! Allow me to play this song on the world's tiniest violin.
Fuck Apple.
