The EU is enforcing USB-C on portable devices

[Berni]

What are you even talking about? The NEMA-15 receptacle is absolutely ubiquitous, you will find them everywhere throughout North America. There is nothing prohibiting using something else but absolutely nobody does because all portable appliances and lamps and stuff come with NEMA-15 plugs. There are 2 or 3 options for large appliance receptacles, 30-50A 240V stuff like dryers and stoves but that will be a stationary device on a dedicated circuit so it's a total non issue, install the correct cord on the appliance when you buy it, plug it in and forget about it. If you are confused it is because you are making incorrect assumptions having never set foot on the continent.

My assumptions are mostly from Youtube videos where i often seen people have issues with plugging in larger loads. As in they run extension cords from the larger outlets, they then find it is not quite the correct kind of "large outlet" and need a converter to it. I recently rember the Technology Connections video on electric kettles talking about kitchens how having the higher amperage outlets but kettles not using them etc..

Here all our plugs are the same Schuko 230V/16A plug. We run everything from those, from the 10W desk lamp to the 3kW clothes drier. Anything larger is typically 3 phase (Hardwired or IEC 60309)

[JPortici]

If someone cannot remember the dominat (smart) phones of the 2005 era (17 years ago), they are either very young or lived in an undeveloped area upto then, likely the poster is young and doesn't know the history of the market.

You made out like (smart)phones had USB all along, they really didnt. USB was in widespread consumer use and the phone manufacturers persisted with their proprietary connectors (even making new ones as linked above). Exactly what you and that poster say wouldn't/didn't happen. I'm not picking out some obscure minority brand here, those were the dominant players in the market and they went for profit ahead of standardization/convenience. They weren't all using 5V or USB power for charging which made 3rd party cables a minefield, that changed only with standardization to USB connectors on the phones.

I certainly do. I have a box full of bricks to remind me at any time (already wrote that). At least nokia at some point stopped using a different barrel jack for every new model
It was europe that mandated usb charges in the first place, let's go back to 2010 for micro USB https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_10_1776
And mini usb before that (the RAZR, anybody?)
What would have happened if they didn't is that every major brand would have kept using proprietary connectors and charges, period.
maybe, i say maybe, the eventual flood of chinese phones that really started in 2015 in europe would have harmonized the connector to usb, but let's look at the timeline.

Motorola RAZR 3 with mini usb launched in 2004, so let's assume that before 2004 you could use whatever you wanted
2010 micro usb enforced (my shitty samsung at the time -2011- had micro usb, was the first i had with usb, i had only nokias before that kept using custom - but didn't change it anymore - until the brand died, though the very last ones used usb as well)
2015 first flood of phones from china, let's assume they all used micro usb and that from 2016 major brands would do the switch
more than 10 years for "the market" to adjust.

I also remember that at the time the data cable was mostly an accessory, 20+ euro for the genuine one (who dared use ebay or aliexpress at that time? scams were all over and customer awareness and protection was very low) sure they gave you the charging cable, but not one that would connect to a pc.

As i said before, i welcome this decision from the EU.
And i understand how most users that has a certain flag can not like it, it's just not in their DNA
US: throw a bunch of standards and let the market - or rather the biggest corporation - decide
EU: pick a standard and mandate it - possibly not choosing the best standard
sure it's because i was born and raised in the EU but i prefer how we do things around here

[JPortici]

The only downside for the iPhone is that a USB-C socket is a bit bigger than a Lightning socket. 

upside: they'll have to make thicker phones that won't bend if you hold them wrong

[Bassman59]

They are definitely after Apple. But it's weird, because the new ruling is that all such devices sold in the EU from 2024 onward must have USB-C charging ports, and I read an article that claimed 29% of devices already have USB-C, 21% are Lightning, and the remainder use micro-USB. So those vendors using micro-USB are in the same position as Apple.

current devices or new devices?

The article was rather awful, and did not mention that, or the date at which they took their sample data point.

[tooki]

The only downside for the iPhone is that a USB-C socket is a bit bigger than a Lightning socket. 

upside: they'll have to make thicker phones that won't bend if you hold them wrong

Which was never an actual problem in real life. Please don’t regurgitate exaggerated BS you read somewhere. (Yes, you could bend an iPhone 6 if you set out to do so. But it wasn’t an issue for anyone who treated their phone with even the most minimal amount of intelligence, like not keeping it in a front pocket of skinny jeans whose pocket bends when sitting. The “problem” was fixed in all subsequent models.)

[james_s]

My assumptions are mostly from Youtube videos where i often seen people have issues with plugging in larger loads. As in they run extension cords from the larger outlets, they then find it is not quite the correct kind of "large outlet" and need a converter to it. I recently rember the Technology Connections video on electric kettles talking about kitchens how having the higher amperage outlets but kettles not using them etc..

Here all our plugs are the same Schuko 230V/16A plug. We run everything from those, from the 10W desk lamp to the 3kW clothes drier. Anything larger is typically 3 phase (Hardwired or IEC 60309)

But nobody ever does that except for geeks, electric kettles aren't really a thing here due to the power thing, a few people do import European kettles and rig them up to work but that's far from the norm. Ordinary people just buy the appliances that are available and plug them into the standard outlets which are the only kind available for general use. Kitchens typically have at least two 120V 20A circuits for receptacles, a 240V 50A receptacle for the stove which is down behind the stove and not readily accessible and then modern houses will have dedicated 120V circuits for the dishwasher, microwave, and occasionally the garbage disposal however older houses have these spread across the regular appliance circuits.

So yes, our system is different than the European system, and technically yes there are multiple receptacle types, but anything beyond the 15A NEMA type will be a dedicated circuit that most people are never going to touch or even see. This is necessary due to the fact that our normal branch circuits are only 120V which is impractical for larger loads, our standard clothes dryers for example are 5.5kW and are much larger than the European dryers I've seen. Which is better? Having dealt with both I think they each have their strengths and neither system is a clear winner. Whatever the case it's not confusing, unless you go off the beaten path and do something unusual like using imported appliances.

[james_s]

If someone cannot remember the dominat (smart) phones of the 2005 era (17 years ago), they are either very young or lived in an undeveloped area upto then, likely the poster is young and doesn't know the history of the market.

You made out like (smart)phones had USB all along, they really didnt. USB was in widespread consumer use and the phone manufacturers persisted with their proprietary connectors (even making new ones as linked above). Exactly what you and that poster say wouldn't/didn't happen. I'm not picking out some obscure minority brand here, those were the dominant players in the market and they went for profit ahead of standardization/convenience. They weren't all using 5V or USB power for charging which made 3rd party cables a minefield, that changed only with standardization to USB connectors on the phones.

That's quite an assumption. I'm in my mid 40s which certainly doesn't feel "very young" to me and I live in the northwest USA about 6 miles from Microsoft's headquarters so certainly not an undeveloped area and I've never seen a smartphone that didn't charge from a USB plug, either via an onboard connector or an included cable terminating in a USB plug with the proprietary (Apple) connector on the other end. The last phone I owned that had a proprietary charger was a flip phone and that was way back in 2007, prior to that I never had a mobile phone. Once again I'll reiterate that USB became the standard without any intervention from the government at all, the market decided that's what people wanted. There is still no requirement whatsoever on this and yet USB is everywhere.

[james_s]

And i understand how most users that has a certain flag can not like it, it's just not in their DNA
US: throw a bunch of standards and let the market - or rather the biggest corporation - decide
EU: pick a standard and mandate it - possibly not choosing the best standard
sure it's because i was born and raised in the EU but i prefer how we do things around here

You have to understand that this country was founded by a bunch of people that escaped overbearing oppressive governments specifically to found a new nation based on freedom from this sort of thing, individual choice and minimal regulation. It's far from perfect but it's something a great many of us hold dear and a fundamental component of our culture. I *hate* being told what to do and dealing with regulations and mandates, it feels like being treated like a small child incapable of making my own choices and there are few things that I find more oppressive and frustrating. I guess maybe someone that had always lived under a government that controls so many aspects of their life wouldn't understand, I don't know. Even my own government feels rather oppressive and mired in rules and regulations these days that I almost wish there was somewhere else to go and get away from it. I understand the need for some rules for things like protecting the environment, rules are a necessary evil but they ARE evil and I hate them.

[tooki]

My assumptions are mostly from Youtube videos

So you don’t actually know what you’re talking about. (I’m American and have ample experience with receptacles in USA.)

… where i often seen people have issues with plugging in larger loads. As in they run extension cords from the larger outlets, they then find it is not quite the correct kind of "large outlet" and need a converter to it. I recently rember the Technology Connections video on electric kettles talking about kitchens how having the higher amperage outlets but kettles not using them etc..

You didn’t fully understand what he was saying. He was absolutely correct that nearly all kitchens have (ignoring the 240V outlet for the stove/oven) just 15A sockets, even if the circuit can handle 20A.

He was also saying how theoretically, you could wire a European kettle to a US 240V circuit. But that’s not something normal.

The only time people in USA typically run into problems of insufficient power is in very old houses where the electrical installation is very old and was never upgraded. (Early electrical was fundamentally envisioned for lighting, not appliances.) The last place I lived in USA was like that — built around 1915, with only one circuit for three rooms. Totally fine for lamps, radios, and TVs, but a serious constraint when using air conditioners.

This problem affects old houses in Europe too.

Modern buildings have massively more capacity, by having lots of circuits with lots of outlets.

Here all our plugs are the same Schuko 230V/16A plug.

Except when they’re not.

We run everything from those, from the 10W desk lamp to the 3kW clothes drier. Anything larger is typically 3 phase (Hardwired or IEC 60309)

FWIW, Switzerland has a really elegant system: standard outlets are 10A, but 16A versions exist, and there are also 3-phase sockets in both current capacities. All of the higher-power ones are downwards-compatible. So a standard 10A plug will fit in any of the 4 socket types. It’s not uncommon for things like stoves or old 3-phase clothes dryers or washers to be hard-wired, but they’re often plugged in.

Anyhow, the Swiss system means you don’t need chunky 16A plugs on ordinary appliances, but you can still install an outlet that can supply 16A 3-phase power without creating inconvenience.

[JPortici]

The only downside for the iPhone is that a USB-C socket is a bit bigger than a Lightning socket. 

upside: they'll have to make thicker phones that won't bend if you hold them wrong

Which was never an actual problem in real life. Please don’t regurgitate exaggerated BS you read somewhere. (Yes, you could bend an iPhone 6 if you set out to do so. But it wasn’t an issue for anyone who treated their phone with even the most minimal amount of intelligence, like not keeping it in a front pocket of skinny jeans whose pocket bends when sitting. The “problem” was fixed in all subsequent models.)

should have added a smiley there, come on

[Halcyon]

The only downside for the iPhone is that a USB-C socket is a bit bigger than a Lightning socket. 

upside: they'll have to make thicker phones that won't bend if you hold them wrong

Which was never an actual problem in real life. Please don’t regurgitate exaggerated BS you read somewhere. (Yes, you could bend an iPhone 6 if you set out to do so. But it wasn’t an issue for anyone who treated their phone with even the most minimal amount of intelligence, like not keeping it in a front pocket of skinny jeans whose pocket bends when sitting. The “problem” was fixed in all subsequent models.)

Actually I've seen this happen first-hand during what would be considered "normal use". People throw phones into bags or keep them in rear pockets all the time. Around the time of the iPhone 6, they were poorly designed, there are simply no other words for it. Not just because of the lack of structural integrity, but widespread issues with failing batteries, poor RF design and LCD's/digitisers that would just stop working over time, not to mention a bunch of them just dying and refusing to power-on because of a faulty component. Apple issued a bunch of recall notices worldwide for the 6 and 6S phones. I've personally had to rebuild/repair several of these phones because of these problems. They were just awful.

[Someone]

If someone cannot remember the dominat (smart) phones of the 2005 era (17 years ago), they are either very young or lived in an undeveloped area upto then, likely the poster is young and doesn't know the history of the market.

You made out like (smart)phones had USB all along, they really didnt. USB was in widespread consumer use and the phone manufacturers persisted with their proprietary connectors (even making new ones as linked above). Exactly what you and that poster say wouldn't/didn't happen. I'm not picking out some obscure minority brand here, those were the dominant players in the market and they went for profit ahead of standardization/convenience. They weren't all using 5V or USB power for charging which made 3rd party cables a minefield, that changed only with standardization to USB connectors on the phones.

That's quite an assumption. I'm in my mid 40s which certainly doesn't feel "very young" to me and I live in the northwest USA about 6 miles from Microsoft's headquarters so certainly not an undeveloped area and I've never seen a smartphone that didn't charge from a USB plug, either via an onboard connector or an included cable terminating in a USB plug with the proprietary (Apple) connector on the other end. The last phone I owned that had a proprietary charger was a flip phone and that was way back in 2007, prior to that I never had a mobile phone. Once again I'll reiterate that USB became the standard without any intervention from the government at all, the market decided that's what people wanted. There is still no requirement whatsoever on this and yet USB is everywhere.

Hang on, you're jumping forward past 2005 to 2007 when proprietary connectors on phones were still a thing...

I'll assume it has something to do with early phones that used a variety of barrel plugs. If so, I'm not ready to give law makers any credit for increasing convenience in my life (which is all that this law is about; simple convenience.) I'm certain that makers of smart phones would have included USB ports for communication purposes anyway. And, I'm just as certain that they would have used those ports for charging. No laws required. (For the record, I am not against all laws, just pointless ones that do more harm than good.)

This shows your age very starkly. Mobile phones traditionally had obscure brand (or model) specific connectors for power and serial (or USB) so that you had to buy the accessories from them and only them. In the bad old good old dark days, you couldnt even charge over USB and as the power adapter had a captive cable it was mutually exclusive: charge or transfer data.

That doesn't say anything about his age, I remember well the days when mobile phones had proprietary connectors, but they standardized without any government intervention at all. They did it because it made sense, USB became ubiquitous enough that it was no longer sensible in most cases to use custom connectors. These days Apple is the exception, however even they include a cable that terminates with a standard USB plug so the issue is moot.

USB was widespread well before smartphones used the standard connectors directly:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Pop-Port
one easily documented example persisted until 2007, which links to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastPort
continuing to 2010

While USB was in use since 1996 and was ubiquitous in the early 2000's as Microsoft had USB only mice from 2001 onward?

As I already said! So your experience was that phone(s) did have proprietary connectors in 2007. Yet USB was ubiquitous in 2000/2001. The market did not move to USB quickly or see the advantages, they bodged USB in on proprietary connectors rather than using the available mini USB. It was after 2007 with the release of micro USB that movement started and even then the EU didn't like the fractured solutions and moved to speed it up.

[Berni]

FWIW, Switzerland has a really elegant system: standard outlets are 10A, but 16A versions exist, and there are also 3-phase sockets in both current capacities. All of the higher-power ones are downwards-compatible. So a standard 10A plug will fit in any of the 4 socket types. It’s not uncommon for things like stoves or old 3-phase clothes dryers or washers to be hard-wired, but they’re often plugged in.

Anyhow, the Swiss system means you don’t need chunky 16A plugs on ordinary appliances, but you can still install an outlet that can supply 16A 3-phase power without creating inconvenience.

The swiss plugs are admittedly very well designed. Tho one of the few countries in Europe where a 16A Schuko plug does not fit. Still the low power non earthed 2.5A "Europlug" does fit, and most things one would travel with do use that plug. It is the most widely compatible plug, since it not only works in all of Europe (except England) but it also works in most of Asia, most of Africa and about half of South America.

In terms of circuits i suppose we are lazy here since we typically put multiple 16A Schuko outlets on a single 16A breaker (10A or 5A are typically just lights). It never seams to be a problem in practice because very few devices pull the full 16A, and even then the breakers do have a fair bit of headroom. A typical house has a lot of circuits anyway. Only commonly seen breakers trip on really heavy loads like old welders or things with hefty big motors.

3 phase plugs are a bit of mess over Europe. So for this reason EU standardized on those big chunky round red colored plugs. Here the old Yugoslavian style 3 phase plug was deprecated in favor of the standard EU plug, most other countries using it did the same. These high power EU plugs are mostly seen in industry, but it is a good step towards agreeing on a standard.

[JohanH]

I guess maybe someone that had always lived under a government that controls so many aspects of their life wouldn't understand, I don't know. Even my own government feels rather oppressive and mired in rules and regulations these days that I almost wish there was somewhere else to go and get away from it. I understand the need for some rules for things like protecting the environment, rules are a necessary evil but they ARE evil and I hate them.

I live in a country where the government consists of ordinary people and where the majority of the people in the country actually trust the government and feel that the people representing them are making decisions that we would do ourselves. This is also the case in many other countries in the EU. It's not perfect, but it works good enough and all statistics show that people living in the Nordic countries in EU are the happiest, most equal and free people in the world with least corruption etc. And EU is the largest peace project ever that has worked pretty much fine for 70+ years. I'm sorry for people living in oppressive and authoritarian countries. This knee-jerk opposition to government is totally strange to us, where the government actually helps people and makes our lives better. Of course there are some criticism all the time, but this belongs and is encouraged in a democracy. I have followed some of US politics and I can see where your views come from. My personal opinion is that you will never have equal human rights, less poverty and criminality unless you change some of your ways. Now this goes into politics, but it seems it has also much impact on technology. Very interesting how your government swayed forth and back e.g. about net neutrality.

[Halcyon]

I guess maybe someone that had always lived under a government that controls so many aspects of their life wouldn't understand, I don't know. Even my own government feels rather oppressive and mired in rules and regulations these days that I almost wish there was somewhere else to go and get away from it. I understand the need for some rules for things like protecting the environment, rules are a necessary evil but they ARE evil and I hate them.

I live in a country where the government consists of ordinary people and where the majority of the people in the country actually trust the government and feel that the people representing them are making decisions that we would do ourselves. This is also the case in many other countries in the EU. It's not perfect, but it works good enough and all statistics show that people living in the Nordic countries in EU are the happiest, most equal and free people in the world with least corruption etc. And EU is the largest peace project ever that has worked pretty much fine for 70+ years. I'm sorry for people living in oppressive and authoritarian countries. This knee-jerk opposition to government is totally strange to us, where the government actually helps people and makes our lives better. Of course there are some criticism all the time, but this belongs and is encouraged in a democracy. I have followed some of US politics and I can see where your views come from. My personal opinion is that you will never have equal human rights, less poverty and criminality unless you change some of your ways. Now this goes into politics, but it seems it has also much impact on technology. Very interesting how your government swayed forth and back e.g. about net neutrality.

What you describe is essentially Australia (albeit it's much colder there and you have better internet).

Both Finland and Australia are in the top 10 countries having the highest human freedoms.

[emece67]

.

[eugene]

As I already said! So your experience was that phone(s) did have proprietary connectors in 2007. Yet USB was ubiquitous in 2000/2001. The market did not move to USB quickly or see the advantages, they bodged USB in on proprietary connectors rather than using the available mini USB. It was after 2007 with the release of micro USB that movement started and even then the EU didn't like the fractured solutions and moved to speed it up.

What I remember is pre-smart phones (i.e. anything not iPhone or Android) having a barrel jack for charging and who knows what for data. I never used the data port as there was nothing on the phone to look at. Every Android phone I have known about used USB. For the record, I'm 61, though I do appreciate you finding me youthful.

But none of this, including my age, has much to do with my argument pages back: phones are already moving towards USB C without prodding. Whether or not USB was mandated in the past is irrelevant today. In the end, mandating isn't going to reduce the number of USB cables we need by more than one anyway. I continue to own USB cables of many types because I still own device that require them. Forcing all new connectors to use the same connector isn't going to make all of those old devices go away.

As for your comments about living in a country where we fear the government, that does not describe me. I am actually very progressive. In general I distrust big industry more than the government (though the current crop in Washington seems to have gone far off track.)

My position that is relevant to this thread is that it is easier to make laws than to change them. If we don't need a law, then I vote to not make it in the first place, then we won't have to struggle to change it later. The law in question might seem on the surface like it's going to fix an inconvenience, but I don't believe it will fix anything that wouldn't fix itself without laws.

[tszaboo]

My position that is relevant to this thread is that it is easier to make laws than to change them. If we don't need a law, then I vote to not make it in the first place, then we won't have to struggle to change it later. The law in question might seem on the surface like it's going to fix an inconvenience, but I don't believe it will fix anything that wouldn't fix itself without laws.

Yeah, but you don't get a vote, because it's a different continent.
And it is not just about phones. Its about that sony camera and the gaming console, the bluetooth headphone the portable hair ironing thing, the vibrator of your wife and the rechargeable flying doodad.
Besides, phones stared using the unified interface because the EU was already going to do this for a decade or so.

[eugene]

My position that is relevant to this thread is that it is easier to make laws than to change them. If we don't need a law, then I vote to not make it in the first place, then we won't have to struggle to change it later. The law in question might seem on the surface like it's going to fix an inconvenience, but I don't believe it will fix anything that wouldn't fix itself without laws.

Yeah, but you don't get a vote, because it's a different continent.
And it is not just about phones. Its about that sony camera and the gaming console, the bluetooth headphone the portable hair ironing thing, the vibrator of your wife and the rechargeable flying doodad.
Besides, phones stared using the unified interface because the EU was already going to do this for a decade or so.

I'm not surprised that you deliberately overlooked my main point in an effort to continue an argument. That's your option in a forum like this.

Edit: I've already addressed all of your points multiple times in this thread. I'm as tired of repeating myself asa other are tired of hearing me do it.

[BravoV]

... Australia are in the top 10 countries having the highest human freedoms.

Two words ... Julian Assange.

[james_s]

I guess maybe someone that had always lived under a government that controls so many aspects of their life wouldn't understand, I don't know. Even my own government feels rather oppressive and mired in rules and regulations these days that I almost wish there was somewhere else to go and get away from it. I understand the need for some rules for things like protecting the environment, rules are a necessary evil but they ARE evil and I hate them.

I live in a country where the government consists of ordinary people and where the majority of the people in the country actually trust the government and feel that the people representing them are making decisions that we would do ourselves. This is also the case in many other countries in the EU. It's not perfect, but it works good enough and all statistics show that people living in the Nordic countries in EU are the happiest, most equal and free people in the world with least corruption etc. And EU is the largest peace project ever that has worked pretty much fine for 70+ years. I'm sorry for people living in oppressive and authoritarian countries. This knee-jerk opposition to government is totally strange to us, where the government actually helps people and makes our lives better. Of course there are some criticism all the time, but this belongs and is encouraged in a democracy. I have followed some of US politics and I can see where your views come from. My personal opinion is that you will never have equal human rights, less poverty and criminality unless you change some of your ways. Now this goes into politics, but it seems it has also much impact on technology. Very interesting how your government swayed forth and back e.g. about net neutrality.

But the thing is, people are different. Our government is made up of ordinary people too, but there are lots of ordinary people I don't see eye to eye with. I don't want to be mandated to do something just because the majority of people think it's a good idea, I want to make my own choices, I want to take my own risks, I want to look out for myself and live my life as I see fit, I don't want to be dragged down by the majority, I hate it, it's oppressive and suffocating. I'm a grown adult, not a child, I don't need a babysitter, I don't need anyone deciding what's good for me. I can't even pick a side with our government and politics because all of the viable parties are awful and I strongly disagree with all of them on one thing or another. I'd genuinely rather have gridlock than have any of them in control.

[james_s]

Hang on, you're jumping forward past 2005 to 2007 when proprietary connectors on phones were still a thing...

Why do you keep bringing up 2005? Who cares about 2005? That's ancient history, I didn't even have a mobile phone that far back, let alone a smartphone and I didn't know anyone that had one until one of my friends got the original iPhone shortly after that came out. Personally I don't consider smartphones to have existed prior to the iPhone. Sure there were a few prototypical devices like Palm and Blackberry but those were esoteric things while the tech was still in its infancy and USB had only been around for a handful of years by that point and still had a lot of rough edges. The concept of using USB for charging only when a data connection was not needed was pretty uncommon but caught on anyway. It was never mandated and still is not mandated though so I don't really get the point you're trying to make. If it's a good idea, it will catch on, and if there are niche applications where it is preferable to have something else, it's good for that to be allowed. We don't need mandates, just buy products that have the features you want, and don't try to force everyone else to have the same thing. It is always better to have choice.

[langwadt]

Hang on, you're jumping forward past 2005 to 2007 when proprietary connectors on phones were still a thing...

Why do you keep bringing up 2005? Who cares about 2005? That's ancient history, I didn't even have a mobile phone that far back, let alone a smartphone and I didn't know anyone that had one until one of my friends got the original iPhone shortly after that came out. Personally I don't consider smartphones to have existed prior to the iPhone. Sure there were a few prototypical devices like Palm and Blackberry but those were esoteric things while the tech was still in its infancy and USB had only been around for a handful of years by that point and still had a lot of rough edges. The concept of using USB for charging only when a data connection was not needed was pretty uncommon but caught on anyway. It was never mandated and still is not mandated though so I don't really get the point you're trying to make. If it's a good idea, it will catch on, and if there are niche applications where it is preferable to have something else, it's good for that to be allowed. We don't need mandates, just buy products that have the features you want, and don't try to force everyone else to have the same thing. It is always better to have choice.

USB may not be mandated, but it might as well have been, the manufacturers just agreed to commit to doing it before they were forced, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_09_1049

[JohanH]

I don't want to be mandated to do something just because the majority of people think it's a good idea, I want to make my own choices, I want to take my own risks, I want to look out for myself and live my life as I see fit, I don't want to be dragged down by the majority, I hate it, it's oppressive and suffocating. I'm a grown adult, not a child, I don't need a babysitter, I don't need anyone deciding what's good for me. I can't even pick a side with our government and politics because all of the viable parties are awful and I strongly disagree with all of them on one thing or another. I'd genuinely rather have gridlock than have any of them in control.

If you had lived over here, you would see how free we are to make our own choices in life. Nobody ever "decided" anything for me. Well something maybe. You had to go to school (but you were free to choose almost any education you wanted). You had to be 18 to do certain things. You have to have a driving license to drive. You can't just take other people's property. Etc. Laws and rules are necessary for a modern society to work and they are mostly common sense, definitely not oppressive, rather supportive. If you are successful in life, you don't even think of the government. It's when you are poor and have bad health that society really steps in here and offers help if you want it. I'm happy to pay my taxes for a better society. Your definition of freedom sounds like some wild fantasy, living in the past when people really had to struggle to get food, fight each other, died young and only a few got lucky and rich. All of this has improved immensely in the last 120 years. The technological development is mind boggling. Nothing of this would have been possible without a society with laws. I would never want to be dragged back to the dark times by conservative and authoritarian powers that fester corruption and inequality.

[julian1]

Does the enforcement apply to the USB-C PD (power delivery) negotiation protocol? Trying to remember from Dave's old video, it required a fairly complicated proprietary solution, and couldn't be done with just firmware + phy.