A true gentleman is one who is never unintentionally rude - Oscar Wilde
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Universal phone charger coming
A GANG OF 17 leading phone companies have agreed to use the same sort of mobile phone charger.
In a victory for common sense, the deal could eliminate up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers.
The universal charging connector will be based on micro-USB, and the majority of new chargers will meet the high-efficiency targets set out by the Open Mobile Terminal Platform. By 1 January 2012 it is expected that the majority of new mobile phones will support the move.
"The mobile industry has a pivotal role to play in tackling environmental issues and this programme is an important step that could lead to huge savings in resources, not to mention convenience for consumers," said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association.
According to the organisation, a universal charger will make life much simpler for the consumer, who will be able to use the same charger for future handsets, as well as being able to charge their mobile phone anywhere from any available charger.
The approved chargers will include a 4-star or higher efficiency rating, which is up to three times more energy-efficient than an unrated charger, the oufit claims.
The move could half the number of phone chargers made, reducing greenhouse gases in manufacturing and transporting replacement chargers by 13.6 to 21.8 million tonnes a year according to estimates.
The initial group of companies that have joined the UCS initiative include 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, LG, Mobilkom Austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone.
Noticeably absent from the list are Apple and HTC, although HTC currently uses mini-USB for device charging and connectivity. Apple is probably totting up how much the move could cost it in lost replacement charger sales.
European Commissioner Gunther Verheugen had earlier thrown his phone out of his pram over the lack of charger standardisation.
Verheugen was hoping that the phone makers might voluntarily adapt to a universal plug standard but he wagged his finger menacingly and warned of "severe measures" if they didn't. µ
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Implement early as possible. It's environment friendly to save electronics waste so it would be great if one charges implemented on 5th june 2011 on "world environment day" by the way implement it early as possible
Who is the idiot that came up with the idea that we needed a micro USB and a Mini USB connector. This has no advantage that I can see of going any smaller then the current Mini USB. Which is so widely adopted on cell phones Digital cameras Video Cameras Blue-tooth ear piece USB watches etc. This is a 1/2 step in the right direction but if they really wanted to go green they would have stuck with the already highly adopted Mini USB over the waste of designed Micro USB. They decided to go with Micro over Mini because they know that they get to sale you just one more adapter. If they would have done this a long time ago we would have had cars with the build in standard phone Dock that also hard connected it to the cars charging and audio system with out the complexity of Blue-tooth Pairing or security risk. The feds should have stepped up along time ago and advocated on behalf of us the consumer.
They are only doing this because China has demand a single power adapter.
They seem to be able to make different models for Japan and Rest of world, but China is a much bigger market (potentialy as least) than Japan and so they are standardising worldwide.
Now if we could only get them to stop locking phones to specific cell service vendors.
Seriously, I'd love to have a Jeebus phone, but there's no way I'd switch to teh ebil AT&T as a provider. And no, I don't want to play the cat and mouse game of jailbreaking teh Jeebus phone just to use it with my current cell service provider.
There oughta be a law!
Because Micro-USB is a new design that is already widely-adopted (and is anticipated by the USB Implementers Forum to replace Mini-USB), thinner (allowing phones, smartphones and internet tablets to become thinner themselve), and can have more connect-disconnect cycles than Mini-USB currently offers (important when using a single port for both charging the battery and data transfer).
The Japanese have had this years ago, though it took them an act of Law to do it!
Now, if we could get all the Media devices done as well....
Why on earth did they choose micro-USB, if they adopted Mini-USB like Motorola, HTC and Blackberry, things would be much simpler.
@Alan Many Laptops use common sized plugs, however if the power requirements of a laptop push it outside a predefined limit (like Lenovo with their T/R/X 61 series), then a connector redesign is needed. This is especially true for laptops running on unusual voltages, like the 20V of a Lenovo R61
Please can we have standard chargers for laptops now as well??
My GPS and my phone already use USB (Tomtom One, RIM Blackberry), but my last two phones, my bluetooth headset, and a bunch of other devices don't, even though they also use 5VDC at USB-capable current levels. Can't wait!
Is for all the other devices that can be charged from a USB port to be compatible, My phone, my ebook reader and my Archos all require separate cables and PSUs.