Apple’s portless iPhone could be more than a concept

By Cristina Alexander Published March 19, 2025

A portless iPhone may no longer be outside the realm of possibility for Apple. The European Union has confirmed that the Silicon Valley giant can create portless iPhones without USB-C.

We reported over the weekend that Apple wanted to make the iPhone 17 Air the first portless phone, but shelved the idea because of regulations in the EU, per a report from Bloomberg. One of those regulations was the Common Charger Directive, an environmental law that forced Apple to switch from the Lightning port to USB-C to reduce the amount of electronic waste from Lightning cables. Now, according to 9to5Mac, European Commission press officer Federica Miccoli said a portless iPhone would also comply with the directive.

“Since such radio equipment cannot be recharged via wired charging, it does not need to incorporate the harmonized (wired) charging solution,” Miccoli said.

By that definition, it would be legal for Apple to sell an iPhone that could only be charged through wireless charging or MagSafe in the European market. The iPhone 17 Air may not be the first phone to not carry a charging port, despite its slim design, but any other iPhone that comes after could be.

In 2023, the iPhone 15 was released as the first iPhone to carry the USB-C port, ditching the Lightning port and the Lightning cable altogether. The switch was made not only to comply with the EU’s Common Charger Directive to create an iPhone with a USB-C port by the next year, but also to make the USB-C port a universal standard for every smartphone on the market. It also alleviated the headache of Android users asking people if they could borrow their chargers to power up their dying phones not knowing if that charger has a Lightning cable or a USB-C cable. Embracing a future of USB-C compatible iPhones did not come easy for Apple, though.