Saudi Arabia passes law requiring USB-C charges for smartphones::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.
Holy shit… This is the first time I’ve agreed with anything from Saudi Arabia. Who knew basic rights suppressors would be pro consumer lmao.
They are not pro-consumer. They are doing this because EU has done it. On the face of things they look progressive and what not, in reality EU really dictates sane laws.
They’re just following in the EU’s steps in a self-aggrandising move. Everyone knows apple won’t bother with splitting the iphone line and will go with USB-C soon.
Nothing about Saudi Arabia is pro-consumer.
IMO other countries shouldn’t adopt laws like this, the EU and maybe the US should be the only ones, since new standards will take longer to get adopted if every country with this kinda law has to allow it instead of just one or two.
I’m in the minority here, but I don’t think any governments should be regulating the choice of cable in smartphones. I think it’s a convenience that they can dangle in front of people so they can say they are pro-consumer, while ignoring the working conditions of those who manufacture it, the taxes paid by corporations who make the phones, the lobbying done against right-to-repair laws, and the monopolistic tendencies displayed by these companies.
The governments have a real responsibility to hold these companies responsible for a lot of things, but I don’t think the choice of one small piece of the technology pie should be one of them.
If the companies won’t do it on their own, they have to be forced. Apple didn’t want to play, hence the law.
