• Americans continue to use three distinct types of ports and cables.
• By March 2025, India will mandate that all mobile devices sold there include a USB-C charging connector.
• Two different types of charging ports for mobile devices and wearable electronics will be available to the government.

By March 2025, India will mandate that all mobile devices sold there include a USB Type-C standard charging port, according to Business Standard.

According to Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Guidelines is creating standards for two popular charger types: one for mobile devices and maybe another for wearable electronics like smartwatches.

According to Business Standard, the Ministry of Environment may examine how having a standard charger for gadgets affects e-waste. The mandate mimics that of the European Union, which established a deadline of December 28, 2024 for all cellphones sold in member states to have the USB-C charging connector.

According to Singh of Business Standard, 'there is broad agreement among the industry and government that the use of USB type C charging ports can be made mandatory after six months of the European Union rolling out standards for USB charging ports in 2024. This is because electronic manufacturers have a global integrated supply chain.' 

Due to the growth of Chinese smartphone companies in 2019, India overtook the US as the second-largest market for smartphones. In India, Androids account for over 96% of all mobile device sales, with Apple coming in second with 3.1%.

All of Apple's iPhones and certain iPads have the company's own Lightning charging port, which it is hesitant to abandon. To comply with EU regulations, the business acknowledged that it will produce iPhones with a USB-C port. 

The business doesn't seem too happy about it. At The Wall Street Journal's Tech Live conference, Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of global marketing, stated that the company will 'clearly' be compelled 'to comply' with the new rule. Apple, he continued, 'doesn't mind governments telling us what they want to achieve,' but the company's engineers are 'very brilliant' and have previously come up with more effective solutions.

As an illustration, Joswiak cited Apple's development of the industry standard for hearing aids designed for the iPhone in response to the failure of a US government rule requiring hearing aid compatibility with mobile devices. 

The European Parliament estimates that 11,000 tonnes of chargers are discarded each year, and it thinks that adopting a single charger will enable EU customers to avoid spending up to 250 million euros annually on additional charger purchases.

With 48% of the market in the second quarter of 2022, Apple has the largest market share in the US for smartphones. Lenovo is third with 9% of the market share, followed by Samsung with 30% of the market share in the same quarter. Most chargers for Samsung and Lenovo smartphones are USB-C or MicroUSB.