[quote]No wonder American's stay out of European affairs, you are all clueless. You preach about a free market, competition and yet your own companies don't even follow the rules.[/quote]We know this (well, I know this). [quote]Your internet services for example charge you extortionate amounts of low internet speeds, Netflix is turning into a monopoly and god knows what else.[/quote] Google is rolling out the fiber. Time Warner Cable already put our internet at 100 Mb/s. They plan to have it at 300 Mb/s before Google fiber makes it to the Southeast. [quote]A newcomer is on equal footing as the big guys as they don't need to fight for something unique besides their product, like apple forcing everybody to buy new connecters and such for their products despite most homes having many chargers already.[/quote]That's why I don't buy Apple products. [quote]Companies will never be consumer friendly in the USA as long as it has a strangle hold on your politicians.......ACTA, CISPA, SOPA all anti-consumer all in the name of greed and profit.[/quote]Implying regulations aren't all for the same thing.

[quote]1st off did it occur to you that the standardization over the last 5 years was because of this law?[/quote] I can honestly admit that it never occurred to me that an EU draft law was the driver behind the development of the Universal Serial Bus as a standard for data transfer and charging in the industry. To me, it always seemed like the standardization of the spec was driven by a need to interface between a variety of hardware in a quickly growing field, as has consistently been the case with other ports and connectors, and companies realized that working together to form a base spec would allow them all to innovate faster, rather than spending years mired in competition over a pretty foundational connector. In fact, your revelation speaks volumes about how extraordinary the EU regulators really are, given the timeline of events. Finally, I have to give the regulators props for being able to change markets that are both similarly established (like here in the US) and [i]vastly[/i] different (like developing markets in Asia and Africa). Forget being an astronaut, I think I've found a new job that I can dream with childlike wonder about having. [quote]Also nobody is stopping innovation, if they make a better charger that will be the new standard and I doubt a universal standard to a GODDAMN CHARGER is going to destroy the industry and get rid of competition.[/quote] Again, I think your insight is really remarkable, and it reflects a very in-depth understanding of the way markets work. In my ignorance, I had conceived of a situation that I will leave here, just so I can show how misguided I was. Let's say I'm Lenovo, fresh off my purchase of Motorola and ready to break into the smartphone market. Years ago, I developed a charging spec for my Thinkpad line that allowed the laptop to go from empty to 80% charge in just half an hour. Now, this was admittedly an expensive undertaking, especially since the money I spent on R&D and marketing could have been diverted towards marketing other products or helping flood the low end with SKU's; however, it was well worth the cost because a) I was able to take the technology to market immediately after development and b) I was the sole owner of the proprietary spec. I could release the new technology based on my anticipation of where the market was going, and I could match the release to my own product cycles, which have proven most efficient for me. Now, with Motorola's expertise, I've developed something even better for smartphones, and I'm planning on listing it as a hero feature for my new flagship-- obviously a milestone in my company's history. But wait, there's one minor quibble: as it turns out, there's a mandate as to which charging spec I have to use. This obviously riles me up a little, since I'm going to have to spend even more time and money on processing paperwork, dealing with regulators, and missing my own release deadline. Still, I sit down and talk to whichever EU rep I can get ahold of and explain that I have something even better than what's out there now. The rep is pretty excited by this news and says he'll talk to his guys and get back to me. Satisfied that I'm going to be able to get my technology to market, I settle down with the wife for a Netflix date night. I don't get a call back the next day, but EU regulators are busy people too, so I'm not too worried. After a week, I [i]am[/i] worried. After getting the runaround from secretaries and some low-level nobodies, I finally get back to my guy. He sits me down and explains what's happened: simply put, nobody else [i]wants[/i] to adopt my technology. It's all about the money. Since I developed the tech myself, I obviously want to sell it to others to use, not just give it away for free. And since this is a big feature, I want a licensing deal that will make sure consumers know this is my technology and not something Apple and Samsung happened to do themselves. But this is more or less poison to my competitors, who would rather boil their own heads than be forced to pay me for something when the alternative is to stick with a technology that everyone already has to use. See, since everyone is forced to use the same thing already, it doesn't actually matter that something better is out there, since it can't disrupt the market anyway. At this point, I'm back to considering the options. I can fight a long, legal battle with regulators to try and find a loophole or cheaper way of getting my technology to market. Or I can sell myself into contract agreements and licensing deals with other manufacturers in exchange for their adopting my technology. Maybe they'll want to get in on my supply chain, considering I'm at the heart of offshore manufacturing and know exactly where to get the cheapest stuff. Neither of these are very palatable to me, and that's where my particular story ends. And where Lenovo is now mired in its issues, their situation becomes a warning sign for other companies who try to develop a new charging/transfer spec. Unless you're an established player with the legal and financial muscle to actually deal with industry-wide mandates, GTFO and stick with the status-quo. Wait for the big guys to push change whenever they feel like it, and don't expect that to be very often. Because, again, it's not in Samsung's best interests to rock the boat when everyone is already forced to be on the same standard. They don't have to spend any money trying to do new stuff and they can instead focus on iteration and hardcore marketing, just like any established player does. The new guys are the ones who have to break in with new tech, but now there's an even larger barrier to entry. [quote]No wonder companies are running the country, you let them walk all over you and shove their propaganda down your throats, but as long as you get your Iphone.[/quote] It's all the unregulated charging cables: they've sunk their tendrils into our neural pathways and turned us into consumerist zombies. ALL HAIL APPLE Again, I would stress that I'm not aware of the situation in the EU. If it is currently the kind of jungle I described in my previous post - and let's be honest, that would be hilarious - then regulation would make some kind of sense. Changing a charging spec for the sake of it every year is obviously anti-consumer. However, it seems to me that a well-developed market would have reached the same milestones as the one here, where that one thing with universal in the name has become universal. Apple doesn't change their connector that often, and even when they do, it's a meaningful change. And IIRC, new charging cables do in fact come with the new phones.

What I'm saying is we already have the standard. Apple just screws their customers over wherever possible.

The EU's population is 70% larger than the US. There have been rulings like this against Microsoft, Apple, Nokia and so forth before, and the companies always gave in. Could they all decide to boycott the EU? Yes. Are they going to? Not in a million years. The EU is too important to them. "Change your charger to this or you can't sell your product anywhere over here." It's a competition. If one company refuses to listen, another won't. It'll take the opportunity and it will capitalize on the chance to be one of the few to sell its products to 500+ million people. Apple won't miss out either, you'll see.