As billions of handsets and and thousands of mobile phone models have filled the pockets (and, eventually, the landfills) of the world, they’ve been accompanied by another device: phone chargers. And as anyone who has owned more than one phone can probably attest, most of those chargers only work on one or two phones. Now, the European Commission has put the final touches on an agreement between fourteen leading phone manufacturers to standardize on charging via microUSB—and that should lead to a future of chargers compatible across a broad range of devices…and fewer chargers going into landfills.
“I am very happy that the European Standardization Bodies have met our request to develop within a short space of time the technical standards necessary for a common mobile phone charger based on the work done by industry,” said EC commissioner for industry and entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani, in a statement. “Now it is time for industry to show its commitment to sell mobile phones for the new charger. The common charger will make life easier for consumers, reduce waste, and benefit businesses. It is a true win-win situation.”
The effort to settle on a common charger technology was launched back in 2009 with an eye not only towards making life easier for consumers, but to reduce waste, since phone customers will no longer have to throw out a perfectly good charger (complete with its environmentally-hazardous components) whenever they get a new phone. Fourteen companies are on board with the new standard—Apple, Emblaze Mobile, Huawei Technologies, LGE, Motorola Mobility, NEC, Nokia, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, TCT Mobile, Texas Instruments, and Atmel—and the first products using the new standard should reach the European market in the first part of 2011. If the idea takes root—and plenty of mobile phone owners probably hope it will—manufacturers could bring the technology to other markets.
at my son in law’s for christmas and he was constantly plugging his iphone into the charger, my moto DEFY just took pictures and pictures and pictures.
about time. blackberry OEM chargers are best.
I’m not sure, didn’t get an iPhone4 because I am not with at&t… I have a Motorola Droid X that already has the USB to microUSB cable…
Something seriously wrong with his iPhone Michael…
Except Apple right? :)
About time too!
This is great, because then everyone can use the same cables for charging & A/C power either via a USB port or USB to A/C power charger. Some cars now even have usb ports in their dashboard…
The only trouble with this standard is that the micro USB connector is not nearly robust enough for the wear and tear that a cell phone charging connector is typically subjected to. Micro USB is great for a PC peripheral that will be plugged in and left in place indefinitely, but cell phone users are finding that the micro USB connector wears out after a few hundreds of cycles. This can readily happen in less than a year. It would be interesting to know how may phones are being turned in as defective under warranty for this reason. Having all manufacturers conform to a single charger connector is a great idea, but this was the wrong connector for the application, in my opinion.
The micro USB connector turns out to have been a poor choice for charging cell phones, in my opinion. Micro USB works very well for a PC peripheral that will typically be plugged in and left in place indefinitely, But for a cell phone, a user may plug and unplug the connector hundreds of times a year–charging the phone in the car, syncing up contacts with a PC at the office, charging up the phone at night. The connector in the phone simply wears out. My experience with a Motorola Droid phone is that the durability of the connector in the phone is in the 100s of insertion cycles, not 1000s or tens of thousands. This is going to be a continuing headache for consumers and for equipment manufacturers getting warranty returns. We need a more robust connector for charging that will really last for 1000s of cycles. Micro USB is not it.
I'll actually be a little mad if Apple moves away from the Dock connector. I have 7 of these cables strategically places throughout my life…… Car, work, bedside (his and hers), computer, travel bag, etc. Not to mention all of the iPhone/iPod specific accessories. Call me a fanboy, but i'll be ok if Apple decides to be snobby and keep the 30-pin dock connector.
I imagine we'd more likely see an adapter setup to make the dock connector compatible with micro usb technology. Or maybe new devices will have BOTH options.