According to the latest information, Saudi Arabia has now finally announced a law to standardize charging ports for all electronic devices that will have to be equipped with the USB-C type connector from 2025.
USB-C standard
The decision comes from the Saudi Standards, Metrology, and Quality Organization and the Communications, Space, and Technology Commission, and essentially confirms the validity of the (same) European decision of recent months.
As per the new report, the first phase of this change will start on January 1, 2025 and will affect smartphones and electronic devices such as headphones, keyboards, speakers, routers, etc. The second phase will start on April 1, 2026 and will apply to laptops.
This will save consumers 170 million SAR (about $45 million) and there will be over 2.2 million fewer chargers each year.
The USB-C standard has been definitively mandatory in the EU since October 2022, after having been under consideration for some time, and the expansion of the number of countries and realities that will impose it can only oblige industry around the world to adopt the new standard.
However, the DxOMark benchmark platform believes that adopting USB-C is not synonymous with a universal charger, and this will be another point that will (sooner or later) have to be discussed.
Apple is also working on the new iPhone models with USB-C in the past. Earlier, Bloomberg reported that it was testing future iPhone models with USB-C, as well as an adapter that would enable these iPhones to work with Lightning connections. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst for TF International Securities known for his Apple predictions, also said Apple plans to convert the iPhone to USB-C in 2023.