text/Wang Xinxi
Previously, Cook bought an iPhone under the banner of "environmental protection" and no longer gave a charging head, and made a lot of money in disguise. Not long ago, EU "used the other way, and used the other person to do it" and introduced new rules. Mobile phones, tablets and other products sold in the EU must abandon the Lightning interface. uses USB type-C interface, and the final change period is autumn 2024.
As early as 2020, the EU legislature passed a resolution to unify the charging solution for smartphones by 582 to 40. At that time, Apple strongly opposed the EU's resolution, saying that unified chargers would "kill innovation", but now with the implementation of EU rules, Apple seems to no longer resist. There is news from that next year, the iPhone 15 may abandon the Lightning interface and switch to the USB-C interface.
EU unified charging interface, Apple has suffered huge losses. Is it wrong?
Apple's charging interface business, will MFi companies be wiped out?
is different from Huawei Samsung Xiaomi OV and other Android phones that use USB Type-C interface, and Apple uses Lightning connection alone, which has several major considerations behind this.
One is to differentiate other Android charger products, maintain its uniqueness and closure, and the other is to gain profits in the accessories market. For Apple, the profit of the iPhone accessories market in its closed ecosystem is a big piece of fat, that is, manufacturers must obtain the license of MFI certification to produce accessories, and accessories manufacturers that have not obtained Apple certification will be restricted by certified chips.
In the Lightning interface business, Apple has always assigned a specific serial number to these accessories manufacturers and includes a specific certification chip. Third-party accessories manufacturers must join the Apple MFI project, sign an agreement and pay the MFi licensing fee, and Apple has also obtained a high profit share (20%~25%). In recent years, Apple has made a lot of money in MFi certified .
Some institutions predict that Apple earns more than US$5 billion every year through Lightning interface and MFI certification, equivalent to RMB 33.5 billion.
In fact, from the perspective of future trends, Apple may make more and more money through the Lightning interface, because the Lightning interface is an exclusive component of Apple. The hardware products it covers are not only iPhones, but almost all devices such as iPhones, iPads, AirPods use Lightning. With Apple's huge equipment shipment volume, the revenue scale of the charging interface business is also very large.
For third-party manufacturers, after obtaining MFI certification, they will also purchase parts of Apple's MFi certification, including chips, circuit boards, charging wire outer glue, etc. These materials must also be purchased from Apple and the relevant patent licensing fees are paid.
This year, Apple was originally planning to charge an annual fee from MFI certification for Lightning interfaces. That is, from April 2022, all third-party accessories manufacturers that have obtained MFi certification will be forced to pay an annual membership fee of US$99, which is approximately RMB 672.21. Renewal is annually. Expired and unpaid manufacturers will be automatically disqualified from membership and will no longer authorize the use of MFi certification.
It can be seen that a large number of third-party MFi certification manufacturers will be snatched away by Apple a lot of membership fees. In addition to various materials and patent licenses, Apple can further increase its profits.
But under a ban from the EU, a sustainable growth and billion-level market business that Apple has worked hard on on the lighting interface has been wasted.
In the future, Apple abandons the Lightning connector and chooses the Type-C interface, which means that Apple is no longer able to use MFI certification and Lightning interface to ensure that it controls the accessories market, eliminates counterfeiting, and makes profits. A large number of manufacturers will also suffer losses.
data shows that there are more than 100 MFi companies in China that authorize the production of data cables. Since the gross profit margin of Apple data cable produced by MFi companies is much higher than that of other mobile phone brands, the gross profit margin is 30%. Among them, the good ones have annual revenue of up to hundreds of millions of yuan.
Therefore, the Lightning interface is cut, which will undoubtedly cause a fatal blow to the lightning supplier, which means that all the Apple production standards that the original manufacturer relies on must be invalidated. These large number of MFi companies that have produced Apple Lightning interfaces according to Apple standards for a long time are likely to be destroyed.
Is Apple wronged?
Do you want to say that Apple is wronged? Not unjust, not unjust.
is wronged because Apple's Lightning interface has its logically established side. After all, Apple has always liked to maintain its unique closure to ensure better security and stability of software and hardware. The self-certified charging interface can ensure the stability, security and high-quality standards of charger supply. On the other hand, the charging interface has formed Apple's unique business model, which can continuously generate money and collect a lot of patent and authorization fees.
If Apple is willing to accept the unified charger standard, it also means that Apple will either give up the cake in this market or find new alternatives to once again control the business in the accessories market. Judging from the current situation, Apple's own business model has been ruined and it is no longer up to the point of making the decision in the accessories market. In fact, it is quite unfair.
But from an environmental perspective, Apple is not unfair. After all, the EU's environmental reasons are at least more convincing than Cook. Due to Apple's unique charging interfaces and cables and huge market shipments, the chargers of old devices are often discarded or lost when consumers replace new devices, and a large amount of electronic waste is generated over the years.
The EU's compulsory measures have certain environmental significance. Data shows that in 2014 and 2015, an average of about 41 million tons of electronic waste will be generated each year, and the electronic waste generated each year is equivalent to 4,500 Eiffel Towers. In 2016, a total of 12.3 million tons of electronic waste were generated in Europe, with an average of 16.6 kilograms per resident. In 2018, data showed that electronic waste produced by charging connectors was still as high as about 51,000 tons. At present, the amount of electronic waste produced by charging connectors is still shocking.
is unified, which means that whether Android is turning to Apple or Apple users turn to Android, the original charging cable can still be reused, which also saves expenses for charging cables and other accessories.
This is good for consumers and can reduce the purchase of unnecessary charging cables.
In the past, Apple pointed out in its arguments to object that a unified charger interface would "damage the interests of European consumers and harm the European economy." But in the EU's view, unified standards are beneficial to the country and the people, and it is a good thing.
The EU's operations actually gave some inspiration to China. Smartphone manufacturers blindly pursue sales and shipments, but the large number of discarded electronic products year after year has had a profound impact on the environmental ecology. Obviously, the EU is also hinting that Apple needs to play a certain role in taking social responsibilities, that is, business decisions need to consider the environmental ecology to a certain extent rather than just its own profits.
The current situation is that I don’t know whether China will follow up on EU rules. Although the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed a unified charging port a few months ago, stipulating that all mobile phones can only use Type-C interfaces to avoid excessive waste of resources, it still takes time to wait for the implementation of policy details, whether in China or Europe, a unified charging interface may be a major trend.
For Apple, in order to reduce losses, it is likely to find new alternatives through technological innovation to strictly control the accessories market. From the current Android market, a large number of Android manufacturers have launched private charging solutions. It is not ruled out whether Apple will launch similar solutions to control the dominance and profit of its charging interface. How to make up for the loss of
? According to Apple's personality, it will definitely not easily admit defeat. It will come up with new charging port control plans and rules to re-control the iPhone charging port accessories market and make up for the losses. However, more than 100 manufacturers' MFi companies that were originally attached to Apple's Lightning interface supply chain may face trouble.If
is not transformed in time, with the end of the Lightning interface, these manufacturers are likely to go bankrupt. Even if the transformation and transformation into the Type-C interface can survive, it is difficult to reach the past level. After all, in the past, the competition among a large number of manufacturers that made Type-C interfaces was already very fierce, and their profits were far less than those of Lightning interfaces. Due to the differences in standards and the differences in production processes, it is not easy for manufacturers in the Type-C camp to get a share of the pie.
Under the transformation trend and ban of the times, these companies, like Apple, need to find new ways out in the accessories business. Whether it is Apple's high profit sharing or the good era of MFi companies' 30% gross profit margin, they may never be able to go back.
Author: Wang Xinxi TMT Senior Commenter This article is not allowed to be reproduced without permission
