Universal mobile-phone charger on the way
By Andrew Heining | 02.17.09
Say goodbye to the tangle of wires next to the bed and in the junk drawer. And, industry officials and environmentalists hope, wave farewell to the heap of obsolete device chargers strangling landfills.
A major mobile-phone industry group has announced a plan in which, by 2012, most new phones will use micro-USB cables as their power cords. All the major handset makers, except for Apple, have agreed to the standard. That could mean no more hunting for the right dongle or throwing away chargers with each new phone.
Besides eliminating waste from discarded chargers, the group’s standard would push cellphone manufacturers to develop adapters that are 50 percent more efficient, and cut down on so-called “vampire power” – the juice drawn when they’re plugged in but already fully charged.
Woohoo, right? Yes, but with some reservations.
What about all the chargers in use now? Doesn’t an industry shift to one standard create a mass charger dump that wouldn’t otherwise have occurred? At this point, micro-USB is an obscure choice; many cameras and some phones, notably the Motorola Razr, use mini-USB.
And what about the hardship that devoted “legacy” handset users will face if their charger conks out and they can’t get a replacement because, well, “You’re supposed to use this kind now. It’s new. Everyone else is doing it.” Instead of just a new charger, that person is now faced with buying a whole new phone. So much for lessening the impact on landfills.
Admittedly that argument has a certain curmudgeonly slant to it. But shouldn’t the mobile phone industry look further than “let’s all make the same charger”? Why not get behind more widespread support for innovations like the wireless charging stations shown at CES?
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3. John | 02.17.09
hallelujah, someone had the brains to figure this one out. Its about bloody time. Now lets hope they can come up with a similar plan for the different power cords for household appliances.
4. Joe | 02.18.09
I don’t get why you are so against this idea … Firstly, the manufacturers say that they want to have this implemented by 2012. That’s THREE whole years. For the past year, many manufacturers have been implementing the “charge via micro-USB” concept meaning if you buy a phone within the next months, there is a big chance that you will have a phone with micro-USB. Also, the RAZR is like 6 or 7 years old - why are you still using this phone??? Even Motorola have replaced the RAZR with the RAZR2 and countless subsequent phones. Yes, there will be an issue with the old chargers being thrown away but basically, from 2012 onwards, you won’t need to buy another charger ever again and manufacturers will simply not package phones with chargers because you should have one already. I think that is good for the environment, don’t you think?
ALSO .. the Powermat wastes a LOT of power .. do your physics and you’ll see.
5. Nick Drake | 02.18.09
Great news this, a friend of mine who works for a UK phone company says they are all scrambling to buy the best website names on the subject of these universal phone chargers. says people are selling them on for amazing amounts of money already..
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1. pete | 02.17.09
great idea not before time.