They need to hit the final nail on the head. All smart phones sold in Europe must have fully documented and open source hardware including the entire chipset, all peripherals, and the modem, with all registers and interfaces documented, the full API, and all programing documentation along with a public toolchain that can reproduce the software as shipped with the device and updated with any changes made to future iterations as soon as the updated software is made available.
This law would make these devices lifetime devices, if you choose; as in your lifetime. It would murder the disposable hardware culture, and it should happen now. Moore’s law is dead. The race is over.
At least we can start with unlockable bootloader. Or at least, the second you’re discontinuing OS updates, you must give a bootloader unlocking tool + kernel sources. Including apple, shame that a device like an iPhone X is “e-waste” now that won’t receive updates
iPhone X is already abandoned? Damn! As an Android user (with a CustomROM, but anyway) I was always kind of jealous of the prolonged iPhone lifetime through updates but this phone can’t be older like 5 years…
I do not like this, at all.
I don’t want to replace my battery. I want my battery to last. 5 years, at least.
This legislation will achieve the opposite and paves the way for batteries that are just crap and need replacement after 12 or 18 months. The companies have no motivation to make better batteries, protect them better against premature degradation.
Sounds good, but generates a lot of trash.
Why not both? 8)
How will this affect apple?
They will try their best to follow the law in the most annoying way. You can do it on your own but your warranty is gone and important security features will be ‘unavailable’ like fingerprint on iPhones with replaced screens or the introduction of ‘registered USB-C cables only’.