Sometimes legal solutions is what you want, but... For starters, one can't legislate for the whole world. It means this kind of legislation will farther fragment the internet (unlike purely technical solutions). Legislation targeting particularly dynamic technical fields may not age well. Also, it is a product of various compromises which often produces a minefield of consequences.
Counterpoint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect
If a market like the EU requires you to set-up specific capabilities to be GDPR compliant, like data export and opt-in flows for cookies, it is often cheaper just to treat everyone like EU citizens instead of trying to differentiate.
Or, at least to build those capabilities to be able to use them where relevant.
So while the EU can't make Apple use USB-C on all the products they sell around the world, they CAN make the alternative (having dual models for EU and other markets) undesirable.
Apple previously made a dual SIM iPhone for the Chinese market. Depending on the regulation that eventually gets enacted, they will either make a port-less iPhone and force wireless charging, or make a special USB-C iPhone for the EU market.
See that's a somewhat bad example because it's a small implementation detail. A different SIM enclosure that's double-sided is put in the phone and it's suddenly a chinese dual-SIM.
Imagine the pain of selling accessories for two types of iPhones, USB-C and Lighting. The engineering that needs to accomodate two ports. The amount of people turning to the grey market to get a USB-C iPhone.
I'd be shocked if Apple ever releases two models. My bet is the first iPhone that falls under the European mandate will have no ports.
> My bet is the first iPhone that falls under the European mandate will have no ports.
I'd give that maybe a 75% chance. I'm not totally sure they're quite ready to release a portless iPhone, which I believe would be a very unpopular change overall. Angering users hasn't always been a big concern for Apple, but I think it's more of a concern than it used to be. Wireless charging just isn't a good fit for a lot of charging scenarios.
Selfishly, I do hope that they don't release a portless iPhone anytime soon. I'd have to choose between upgrading my iPhone -- something I do every year or two -- and having CarPlay work in my car (which needless to say I very infrequently upgrade). I suppose a dongle or attachment for this purpose would be inevitable.
I'm sure Apple engineers are hard at work replicating the throughput of USB 2.0 speeds on a magnetically locked induction connection. Then they can offer a dongle so we don't have to change our cars!
> The amount of people turning to the grey market to get a USB-C iPhone
And the amount of people turning to the gray market to get a Lightning iPhone. I personally live in the EU, and I'll strongly consider importing my new phone if Apple decides to go with two separate models.
I see what you mean, but I don't think GDPR is really a valid example, because data-protection became at that moment a global concern, so quite a lot of companies were ready for it, there was an expectation that many jurisdictions will folow the suit anyway, and generally it wouldn't be bon ton to resist it. There are lots of very visible cases when it doesn't work like that: search, app markets, availability of news sources, medical information - what you see is dependent on your location, and sometimes even on your passport color, and as I see it it's more often restricting you as a user, than protecting.
