Apple has confirmed it will start shipping iPhones with a USB-C connector according to EU legislation. From when when on precisely is not yet known.
It was written in the stars, of course. New EU legislation requires a universal charging connector on smartphones and the like. If a device does not have one, it may not be sold within the union. As far as the iPhone is concerned, Apple has no choice but to comply with the law. Apple does note, however, that the measure will lead to a huge stack of Lightning cables going to waste. According to the company, there are more than a billion of these in use.
Nonsense?
One wonders anyway whether the law does not completely misses the point. Phone chargers that came on the market in recent years all had a USB-A connector. And any adapter cable fits into that. You can throw those chargers in the trash over the next few years, too. It seems mostly a law devised by bureaucrats who haven’t studied the subject too deeply…