Battery capacity and battery life have always been a concern for everyone in mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets. As these devices develop faster and faster, and their hardware configurations become higher and higher, energy consumption is also increasing faster, so all manufacturers are constantly adding capacity to the batteries in the devices they launch. . But as battery capacity increases, charging time becomes a problem, so Huawei took the lead in solving this problem and developed a super-fast charger and its core technology.
At the beginning, many people were very skeptical about this technology. On the one hand, they were worried about its safety, and on the other hand, they were afraid that it would shorten the life of mobile phone batteries. After a period of development, everyone has safely accepted its existence, and it has even become an industry standard.
What is puzzling is that although super fast charging has become standard in the domestic mobile phone market, almost all newly launched mobile devices are using this technology, but only in the industry Apple, the leading eldest brother, still has not adopted it. So, what is the reason why Apple does not use this technology? The author will analyze it with you below.
Patent issues
As we all know, in the mobile phone industry, almost every company has a lot of patented technologies, and when other manufacturers need to use other companies’ patented technologies, they must Pay a patent fee, and this patent fee is calculated based on the shipment volume of the device, which means how much you have to pay for each mobile phone made. And Apple’s annual shipment volume is quite amazing, so when you calculate it , which is a considerable cost compared to patent fees. The most important thing is to pay Huawei.
Worried that the technology is not yet mature
Apple is well-known in the industry for being rigorous about its products, and super fast charging is not an ordinary technology. To upgrade the power adapter, it is necessary to equip the equipment with relevant technologies, monitor the input voltage of the equipment at all times, and make adjustments at any time. Therefore, if there is no protection during this process, it is easy to lose the battery or even cause an accident.
I believe everyone still remembers the incident when Samsung’s note7 battery exploded. Looking back on that year, it was precisely because of the battery that Samsung's reputation declined, and its global market share also dropped a lot. It is also for this reason that several domestic mobile phone manufacturers have become successful. Therefore, Apple has to be cautious. Either it is completely reassured that they will not use super fast charging, or it is afraid of being like Samsung back then.
Problems with charging interfaces
As we all know, Apple’s mobile devices have always used their unique Lightning interface instead of the Type C interface that is now mainstream in the Android market. This The biggest advantage of the interface is that it allows Apple to firmly control the peripheral accessories market in its own hands. Even accessories made by third parties still require Apple-certified chips, which means they still need to pay them. But the disadvantage of the Lightning interface is equally obvious, that is, the maximum power it actually supports is only 20W, which does not reach the threshold of super fast charging.
In this way, if Apple wants to use this technology, it must abandon the current Lightning interface and use Type C instead. In fact, as early as 2015, Apple has collectively replaced its mac books and iPad pro with Type C interfaces, because they also know that the Lightning interface in the past will gradually be unable to meet the demand for large-capacity batteries. As for why I haven’t replaced my iPhone yet, that’s because the battery capacity of iPhones is much smaller than that of tablets and notebooks, and it’s really difficult to give up those huge benefits.
Layout for its own wireless charger Air Power
Cook once said that the future direction of mobile phones is to cancel all physical buttons and openings, truly achieving no openings and no buttons. state. In other words, future mobile phones will not only have no headphone jack, but also no charging port, no speaker hole, no volume buttons, no screen lock button, and no mute button. Nowadays, screen sound technology is relatively mature, and many curved screens have canceled the volume keys, so it is possible to achieve without holes and buttons.
How to charge a mobile phone without a charging port? Of course, wireless charging equipment is needed, and Apple also launched its own Air Power device early on.
I don’t know if you still remember that when Apple launched iPhone 7, Cook claimed that in order to make the phone more waterproof, he canceled the headphone jack and launched the first generation of wireless headphones. airpods. Perhaps Cook did not expect at the time that sales of this small pair of wireless headphones would grow so fast within a few years. In the third quarter of this year alone, Apple’s wearable device shipments were 29.5 million units, most of which were air pods and air pods 2. Therefore, Apple has also tasted the benefits and is not in a hurry to use super fast charging technology.
The author believes that in the near future, Apple will announce the complete cancellation of iPhone charging sockets, and only Air Power can be used to charge the device. Of course, this cost has to be passed on to consumers. I wonder if you will continue to insist on buying Apple when that time comes?