Saudi Arabia passes law requiring USB-C charges for smartphones

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone

From 2025, Apple's iPhone and all Android smartphones sold in Saudi Arabia will have to have a USB-C charging port, with laptops to follow in 2026.




After the European Union's mandate that all smartphones switch to USB-C charging, the government of Saudi Arabia has followed suit.

According to GSM Arena, the local government has announced that the law is intended to cut down e-waste, reduce costs overall, and improve the user experience. The latter is to come both from the convenience of being able to more easily buy or borrow the correct cables, and from ensuring higher speed data transfers.

The announcement was reportedly made by the Saudi Standards, Metrology, and Quality Organization and the Communications, Space, and Technology Commission, which said that the law will be enacted in two stages.

From January 1, 2025, the law will require USB-C charging ports on all new smartphones, headphones, keyboards, speakers and routers. Then from April 1, 2026, the law will be extended to apply to laptop computers.

Saudi's law is unlikely to impact Apple as it is expected to move the iPhone to USB-C starting with this year's iPhone 15, and by EU law must do so by the iPhone 17 in 2025. Leakers have already begun claiming to have images of the iPhone 15 range's USB-C components.

Apple has not commented on the decision. It has previously, though, argued that moving to a common charger would handicap innovation and increase e-waste, rather than reduce it.

A rumor in February 2023 claimed that Apple would throttle charging and data transfer speeds over USB-C cables that had not been certified by the company. However, the EU has informed Apple that this is unacceptable, and that were it to happen, the EU would ban iPhone sales.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,425member
    Sure glad Saudi is saving is from certain Doom by curtailing eWaste.  I can cross that existential threat off the list and go back to focusing on the impending UFO invasion. 


    fred1baconstangFileMakerFellerdewmekiowavtwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 18
    imagladryimagladry Posts: 105member
    Acut down on e-waste? You know how many cables I have to throw out with the switch to USBB-C?
    baconstangdanoxwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 18
    GrannySmith99GrannySmith99 Posts: 45member
    Saudi is going to charge people for using USB-C? That’s what i understand from your headline!

    FileMakerFellereightzerowatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 18
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,703member
    imagladry said:
    Acut down on e-waste? You know how many cables I have to throw out with the switch to USBB-C?
    None? Keep using them on the devices they came with until you no longer need them and then recycle them or send them away for re-use. 

    I hope you realise that the move by Apple to USB-C has already started before this announcement. 
    fred1muthuk_vanalingamdarkvader
  • Reply 5 of 18
    jayweissjayweiss Posts: 69member
    You are clearly not a pirate - you forgot the “R” in chaRgers. Arrrr..
    FileMakerFellereightzerowatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 18
    danoxdanox Posts: 2,875member
    avon b7 said:
    imagladry said:
    Acut down on e-waste? You know how many cables I have to throw out with the switch to USBB-C?
    None? Keep using them on the devices they came with until you no longer need them and then recycle them or send them away for re-use. 

    I hope you realise that the move by Apple to USB-C has already started before this announcement. 

    Like switching to burning EV’s by government proclamation, so much for having an attached home garage to park a EV.

    The amount of waste, won’t be reduced, the only thing that’s going to clean up the environment, or the earth itself, is a sudden lack of humans.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ9-mW-cmdE

    edited August 2023 watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 18
    mknelsonmknelson Posts: 1,127member
    hmurchison said:
    Sure glad Saudi is saving is from certain Doom by curtailing eWaste.  I can cross that existential threat off the list and go back to focusing on the impending UFO invasion. 
    So you posted an image from 2017 of oil fires set by retreating ISIS forces in Iraq?
    sphericdarkvader
  • Reply 8 of 18
    mikethemartianmikethemartian Posts: 1,328member
    avon b7 said:
    imagladry said:
    Acut down on e-waste? You know how many cables I have to throw out with the switch to USBB-C?
    None? Keep using them on the devices they came with until you no longer need them and then recycle them or send them away for re-use. 

    I hope you realise that the move by Apple to USB-C has already started before this announcement. 
    Or donate them to a local charity thrift store.
    darkvader
  • Reply 9 of 18
    darkvaderdarkvader Posts: 1,146member
    imagladry said:
    Acut down on e-waste? You know how many cables I have to throw out with the switch to USBB-C?
    The only reason you'd throw out working cables is that you're an asshole.  Don't be an asshole.  Lots of people will be using old iPhones for many years, donate them to a charity so they can be reused.
    FileMakerFeller
  • Reply 10 of 18
    Life007Life007 Posts: 1member
    Don’t the laws say all new phones, Apple won’t be able to sell the earlier model iPhones. Currently you can buy iPhone 12.
    FileMakerFellerwatto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 18
    kmareikmarei Posts: 183member
    Judging by the leaked pics of the iPhone 15
    apple has finally woken up and smelt the coffee
    fact is they resisted because of the whole "made for iPhone" royalties they were charging for lightning cables
    this was not because they knew better or for any technical reason 
     
  • Reply 12 of 18
    jdwjdw Posts: 1,340member

    Saudi Arabia passes law requiring USB-C charges for smartphones


    William G., I don't see anything in your article that suggests Saudi Arabia is passing a law that requires special charges (i.e. taxes, fees, etc.) related to USB-C use on smartphones, as your very confusing headline implies!

    Even if you misspelled that word and meant "changes", that would imply USB-C was used before but now there need to be USB-C changes!  What?!

    Just delete that silly word outright and your headline will make sense!

    My services as acting Editor for AppleInsider are free.  Enjoy! :-)
    eightzero
  • Reply 13 of 18
    FileMakerFellerFileMakerFeller Posts: 1,546member
    imagladry said:
    Acut down on e-waste? You know how many cables I have to throw out with the switch to USBB-C?
    Recycling centres exist, and cables can be converted back to raw materials quite efficiently.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 18
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,069member
    What else on this site hasn't been vetted or examined for correctness or completeness?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 18
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,069member
    imagladry said:
    Acut down on e-waste? You know how many cables I have to throw out with the switch to USBB-C?
    A rhetorical question: exactly zero.
    muthuk_vanalingamsphericwatto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 18
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,376member
    Apple will most certainly be putting USB-C charging ports on its next series of iPhones.

    I suppose this may come as a surprise to those who are only now emerging from their nuclear hardened underground bunker, totally cut-off from the world since the release of the iPhone 5. I trust that the appearance of a USB-C port on an iPhone that lacks a home button will be the least of the surprises facing the newly emerged hermits.

    Depending on what happens in the next couple of years, I may be putting an offer in on one of those vacated underground bunkers. I hope that when I emerge Apple and whatever's left of humanity on Earth has moved beyond USB-C. As a long time fan of object orientation I'm really hoping the future iPhones will be equipped with a USB-C++ port. The benefits of polymorphism offered by the USB-C++ port will undoubtedly ensure that the abundant bomb craters being repurposed as landfills and naturally heated swimming pools do not fill up more quickly than anticipated. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 18
    beowulfschmidtbeowulfschmidt Posts: 2,141member
    According to GSM Arena, the local government has announced that the law is intended to cut down e-waste, reduce costs overall, and improve the user experience. The latter is to come both from the convenience of being able to more easily buy or borrow the correct cables, and from ensuring higher speed data transfers.
    Except that simply switching to USB-C in no way, shape, or form "[ensures] higher speed data transfers."

    watto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 18
    ilarynxilarynx Posts: 90member
    mknelson said:
    Sure glad Saudi is saving is from certain Doom by curtailing eWaste.  I can cross that existential threat off the list and go back to focusing on the impending UFO invasion. 
    So you posted an image from 2017 of oil fires set by retreating ISIS forces in Iraq?
    On a sarcastic post referencing "the impending UFO invasion", why would anyone focus on the clearly metaphorical photo attached to it? Is anyone expecting to find a real photo of oil pouring out of the Saudi Arabian Parliament? Oh, wait! There is no Saudi Arabian Parliament because Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. 

    https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/saudi-arabia/

    Perhaps it would be more appropriate to show a dark thick liquid pouring out of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Khashoggi
     
    watto_cobra
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