The European Commission has announced a new Memorandum of Understanding that will have major mobile phone makers work together to create a universal mobile phone charger based on micro-USB connectors, with the first compatible mobile handsets slated to hit the EU market in 2010. The move is designed not only to make things easier for consumers—who won’t have to hunt around for chargers particular to a specific mobile phone whenever they need to power up—but also eliminate waste, since consumers won’t have to toss out perfectly good chargers whenever they replace or upgrade a phone. The memorandum of understand also means that the EU won’t have to legislate a universal charging solution…assuming the industry can carry the idea on its own from here.
