Europe to Get Universal Cell Phone Charger

[JMcEntegart]

Several major mobile phone manufacturers have said they are backing a proposal for a standard cell phone charger for cell phones distributed in the European Union.

Europe to Get Universal Cell Phone Charger : Read more

 

[rsud]

I am! And how about making the chargers smarter so there is no trickle electricity (stop electric vampires!) being used when no device is attached for charging. The amount of electricity being wasted is huge. Next, people who leave screensavers running on their computers overnight should be taken out and shot. Desktops should be shutdown (and pls no whinning that this is when updates & anti virus come down, this can all be done better).

 

[pharge]

"Manufacturers who have signed the agreement to support the move include Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Nokia, ...."

iPhone w/ microUSB? hmm... interesting...

 

[Guest]

How will this change anything significant?

Every time the major battery chemistry changes you will need a new charger again.

Dont get me wrong....standards can be good, but they can also be bad if they hold back battery tech.

Weve already had 3 major revisions in battery tech necessitating new chargers in the last 6 years or so. Nicd, nimh, lithium(and the dozen or so flavors it comes in that aren't the same)

 

[the last resort]

why can't the US be this smart? OH, that's right, politicians run our country.

 

[Tanatos]

It will be available only for the new models after 2010... So iPhone with it is very unlikely. But who knows...

 

[apache_lives]

[citation][nom]pharge[/nom]"Manufacturers who have signed the agreement to support the move include Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Nokia, ...."iPhone w/ microUSB? hmm... interesting...[/citation]

Rendering my two apple chargers useless for my next phone and end up in land fill?

Does that mean the next one will have a normal AND a usb plug on it? or will every adapter that fits my current stuff have to be replaced too? hmmmmmmm

 

[ckthecerealkiller]

[citation][nom]rsud[/nom]How about making the chargers smarter so there is no trickle electricity (stop electric vampires!) being used when no device is attached for charging. The amount of electricity being wasted is huge.[/citation]

Not remotely logical. Everything wastes electricity when it's plugged in, being used or not, unless you want to fit everything with a superconductor. But I'd rather not pay several hundred dollars for something just so I can plug it into the wall....

On a side note, I think it would be good for the US. Although it would eliminate super thin phones but that is an acceptable loss.

 

[the last resort]

double post, but the lady in the picture probably has a non-data capable phone and is there for still jacked up a creek for charging her dead phone.

 

[rooket]

I hated the charger for my Motorola V551, it barely even connects to charge. What a piece of trash. My current motorola has a USB but you have to install drivers on a PC otherwise it won't charge. But the wall charger works too, just that I assume it has to have a special signal it sends to the phone. I have motorola compatable mini usb chargers though official and generic. This is a good move by the EU, hopefully they follow suit in the US because having a ton of different chargers for things sucks.

 

[hellwig]

My old Nokia xPress Music 5300 charged on 5V. It even had a mini-USB port to transfer data between a computer. However, it could only charge through the nokia-specific mini-pin connection, not the USB port. If the phone didn't use 5V, or didn't have the USB port already, I could understand using a proprietary connector. However, when the only thing missing is a connection between the USB 5V pin and the battery, I have a serious problem with companies using non-standard chargers. Needless to say my current phone uses USB, and I don't plan to switch back to anyone who doesn't.

However, this is sort of old news. If I recall, China has already mandated that all cell-phones sold in the country charge via USB, so the EU is simply following suit.

 

[justjc]

This will be quite an energy saver.

First there is the fact that new phones don't need to ship with a charger, meaning less manufacturing(no chargers), less packaging and lower weight on the packaging making it a bit cheaper to transport.

Second there will be a market for cargers. Chargers will compete on design, quality and efficiency, the last made clear by a star rating.

About asldkfj24lkjskdjf2s wonder of need for charger changes when battery tech changes, my guess is that the chargers will be intelligent and the phones will be able to tell them what kind of charge it needs.

Standards like this is one of the things EU is good for, in the US the companies complaints would have stopped long ago. EU even made Apple change their mind about following standards!

 

[tayb]

I wonder how much this will effect phones here in the US. I'm willing to bet that most of these companies just adopt micro-USB for their entire product line regardless of country rather than designing multiple versions of the same phone with different charging interfaces. Seems to me that doing so would be a huge waste of money.

 

[Harby]

[citation][nom]justjc[/nom]This will be quite an energy saver. First there is the fact that new phones don't need to ship with a charger, meaning less manufacturing(no chargers), less packaging and lower weight on the packaging making it a bit cheaper to transport. Second there will be a market for cargers. Chargers will compete on design, quality and efficiency, the last made clear by a star rating.About asldkfj24lkjskdjf2s wonder of need for charger changes when battery tech changes, my guess is that the chargers will be intelligent and the phones will be able to tell them what kind of charge it needs.Standards like this is one of the things EU is good for, in the US the companies complaints would have stopped long ago. EU even made Apple change their mind about following standards![/citation]

You cannot assume that EVERY potential buyer owns a PC. They will still have to ship a charger I'm afraid.

 

[Pei-chen]

LOL, at this rate, EU will adapt Communism in two years. China already mandate all cell phone sold in China to have a charger based on USB back in 2007.

 

[Guest]

this is great. also I think it will effect everybody(or all most) not just us Europeans. Because these companies would want to sell all theire phones in Europe to noo. It really wouldn't make sense for them not to adopt this on all theire product line. And with the market share these companies have everybody else would kind of have to follow the trend if they don't want to lower their piece of the pie.

Harby I don't really know what this has to do with a PC, but because chargers will be universal you'll just need to buy one charger because it will feet all phones you won't have to change it when you change the phone. So I think justjc is right, they probably won't be selling phones with chargers.

 

[Guest]

The charger will obviously become a "bought separately" item. That way you only buy one if you need it. Great stuff from an environmental standpoint. Whether manufacturers pass on the savings on the phone package to the rest of us remains to be seen.

 

[alextheblue]

[citation][nom]the last resort[/nom]why can't the US be this smart? OH, that's right, politicians run our country.[/citation]Politicians run many countries, well those that don't have dick taters (like Iran). This decision, while is seems to have no drawbacks, further solidifies the path the EU is walking down - namely controlling everything businesses do. What if I want to make a high performance video/photo phone with firewire? Well, now I need to include mini USB as well for charging purposes. Its not that big a deal, but where does it end? I just hate watching governments dictating how a product should be made. Look at what they did to MS just as an example. It never ends, and its coming over here too. We're starting to become a Nanny Nation, where the gubment makes all our decisions for us, to "protect" us.

 

[Humans think]

[citation][nom]the last resort[/nom]why can't the US be this smart? OH, that's right, politicians run our country.[/citation]

I guess you mean that politicians do not run your country, because these kind of regulations are becoming reality only if there is political will to change sth instead of letting things go by the current.

 

[Humans think]

[citation][nom]apache_lives[/nom]Rendering my two apple chargers useless for my next phone and end up in land fill?Does that mean the next one will have a normal AND a usb plug on it? or will every adapter that fits my current stuff have to be replaced too? hmmmmmmm[/citation]

If this new regulation comes to effect, you can buy a new universal charger without paying apple-tax way cheaper and keep it for years. Nokia which is the pioneer of cell phones in European market, all these years of operations has only produced to types of chargers with a normal and a mini plug, whereas other companies like Sony-Ericcson and Motorolla change them every year