I sometimes joke that one of my part-time jobs is charging devices, and so I love that the world has shifted to USB-C as the standard for wired charging. It's trendy to criticize the EU for over-regulating things, but this is one area where I'm glad they stepped in and forced everyone, including Apple, to get on board.
Phones, tablets, and laptops basically have 100% adoption at this point, and adoption is similarly high for other small appliances, electronics, and even airplane seats. All of this means having to carry around fewer cables, which is especially helpful when traveling.
At Parkview Mountain House, we equipped the main workspace area and kitchen with USB-C outlets, though we also included USB-A for legacy reasons. It's good for that electric toothbrush. But I know we're going to need many more USB-C outlets in the coming years.
On that note, I just discovered a cool Swedish company called Cords that makes beautiful, high-quality cables, chargers, and extenders. They also have a partnership program for architects, interior designers, and retailers if any of you are interested.
Sadly, though, they're a Swedish company and I think all of their devices use a Type C European wall plug. Otherwise, I'd be getting one of the cylindrical chargers shown above.
There are about 15 electrical plug types currently in use around the world. I can't see these being standardized anytime soon, but I do think that we'll see household outlets reach something close to a 50/50 split between standard and USB-C outlets. Already, I feel we should have installed more at PMH.
USB-C doesn't allow for enough power for bigger appliances, so it's not going to be for everything. But for any device that could run off a USB-C port, I don't know why it wouldn't eventually switch. If you aren't already thinking about this in your new-build projects, it wouldn't be a bad idea to start planning for it.
That is, until we've figured out a viable wireless charging solution. This is why USB-C is sometimes referred to as the "final connector." It's probably the last wired connector before we get rid of wired altogether.
Photos from Cords
