European Commission Set to Adopt Universal Micro-USB Smartphone Charging Standard in January

[BlackSmp]

Since the characteristics of the charger are specified, all Apple needs to have is an adapter or cable that uses the necessary resistance ratios to identify the charger characteristics. At worst, the only change needed to the iPhone itself would be a software change.

To demonstrate this, review this video, wherein an iPhone is charged happily and without complaining from a laboratory power supply once the proper resistor ratios are placed between the USB pins.

I suspected something like that. Thanks for the information.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

When he says the US would be insane not to follow the standard does he know he is talking about the same country that still doesn't use the metric system?

It really does not matter if the US requires it by law or not. All the major manufactures (minus Apple) are already switching over on their new phones.

The consumers complained about the property data connection wires on the smart phones and wanted some type of USB. It being Mini or Micro they did not care. RIM with with mini for a while then switch to micro. LG smart phones us micro, samsungs new smart phones use micro now, HTC, Nokia and the list goes on.
Now the other really nice thing is those same manufactures are carrying this over to their "dumb phone" lines and even those phones are using a micro USB charging port.
Now of the companies going over to it to me the biggest shocker is sony. Sony made just about everything they could on their phone property. The memory cards were sony only ones and they used a crappy connector for data and charging as well.

 

[Truffy]

Also, I don't like how the EU can make a law and it will pretty much change every country, because if you want to sell there you'll just make all your products do that. Sometimes it is a good thing, but sometimes not. I don't like how they have control over my country because they wanted to do something in theirs. Why does the EU like to stick their noses into everything? I do agree that most things I hear about the EU "sticking their noses" into is good for consumers, but they just seem to do it a lot.

Much the same could be said of the US government.

 

[iZac]

I know Steve thinks ports are the enemy of sleek design, but would it be so difficult or horrendously ugly to just put a little mini USB port on the side somewhere, kinda low? Or maybe up near the headphone jack? If not, I'll take one of those on future iPod touches and iPads too, thank you very much.

Making Europeans (and eventually me here in America) carry around an adaptor seems to defeat the point of the "how cool is that" scenario from the article. Because if my adaptor is sitting in a drawer at home, and I'm at my friend's house, then NO, I can't use their charger.

But dropping the classic 30-pin connector and reducing everyone's existing docks and accessories to useless or impracticable seems an equally bad solution.

To be honest, as it stands, I shout out over the office "Has anyone got a Sony charger?" I get no response, but there is at least 20 people with iPod USB cables connected to their PCs. Ubiquity can be good in those situations!

Still, a standard connection will be great for the industry as a whole!

 

[nascimento]

Just a little scholarly reading would show you that the EU did not pass any legislation on this as the manufacturers themselves agreed on the best way forward.

As well as Nokia, LG and others who else signed up for it do you think? That's right... Apple, RIM, Texas Instruments.

The moment i read this I went to the EU newsletter...lets see what they are saying.


""What will be the impact of the MoU on prices?

Consumers will be able to purchase mobile phones without a charger, thus logically reducing their cost. They will also be able to purchase much more cost-effective stand-alone chargers than it is currently the case"" (end quote)

No. The manufacturers will have a cost saving, the price of the phone will not come down, it would be foolish to think so. The cables will all be proprietary so I will still need them.

Who benefits:

The manufacturers, same proprietary cable but they dont have to supply a charger.

The Planet, slightly

The consumer, nothing. Will have to buy the phones without charger and will have to purchase the chargers separately. I wonder how long theses universal chargers will last and how much they will cost and I also wonder how many of the companies that signed this will make their own chargers as an "essential" extra.

 

[Daveoc64]

The consumer, nothing. Will have to buy the phones without charger and will have to purchase the chargers separately. I wonder how long theses universal chargers will last and how much they will cost and I also wonder how many of the companies that signed this will make their own chargers as an "essential" extra.

A Samsung Micro USB charger costs £5 on amazon.co.uk.

That charger would work with any of the phones sold in the EU from next year (as well as some of the most popular phones on the market now).

An Apple charger costs £17.50 on amazon.co.uk (the latest version).

That charger will only work with iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

See why the current situation is unfair for the consumer?

 

[nascimento]

A Samsung Micro USB charger costs £5 on amazon.co.uk.

That charger would work with any of the phones sold in the EU from next year (as well as some of the most popular phones on the market now).

An Apple charger costs £17.50 on amazon.co.uk (the latest version).

That charger will only work with iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

See why the current situation is unfair for the consumer?

Dave...

I will never be able to plug in a micro USB cable to my iphones or Ipods because they have proprietary plugs. If am correct, Apple and others only need to provide USB connection on one end of the cable the part that connects to the Iphones ipods (or others) can still be proprietary.

The consumer will not save anything because the phones are already supplied with chargers.

its good to be Green when it saves you money!!!

 

[Stella]

Who benefits:

The consumer, nothing. Will have to buy the phones without charger and will have to purchase the chargers separately. I wonder how long theses universal chargers will last and how much they will cost and I also wonder how many of the companies that signed this will make their own chargers as an "essential" extra.

If the consumer already has a universal USB charger, they won't have to buy another ( unless they want another ). The consumer benefits.

If companies make the charger "an essential extra".. thats up to them and totally missing the point.

I will never be able to plug in a micro USB cable to my iphones or Ipods because they have proprietary plugs.

Never say never..! They have proprietary plugins, for now.

 

[nascimento]

If the consumer already has a universal USB charger, they won't have to buy another ( unless they want another ). The consumer benefits.

If companies make the charger "an essential extra".. thats up to them and totally missing the point.

Stella can you explain to me how the consumer benefits if all mobile phones already come with a charger?

If the EU imposed one fits all connector and cable then I agree there would be, after many years, a small cost saving for the consumer but then I would be worried that technological progress would be in the hands of the Eurocrats.

 

[sclawis300]

charging pad

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but wouldn't it be better to take a big step forward instead of a little step. Why not focus on a standard battery that can charge on a pad like my wii remote does. Then we could just have one charging pad with multiple cell phones on it, wii remotes and whatever other little gadgets need charging. Seems better than having a dedicated device just to charge your phone. And no I do not want to have to buy some sort of aftermarket case that makes this possible.

 

[Daveoc64]

can you explain to me how the consumer benefits if all mobile phones already come with a charger?

-Additional Chargers (I have several for my phones - the actual charger has a USB connector so I can connect all of these chargers to just about anything that charges by USB: Phones, iPod, Sat Nav, My DS)
-Car Chargers (I have 3 car chargers, purchased in the last year that wont work with my new iPhone)
-When connecting to a computer (presumably most phones will support the micro-USB port for data purposes as well - if not, you can charge using a computer or anything else with USB: Games Consoles etc.)
-When you don't have access to your own charger(s)

 

[neutrino23]

This is a really dumb idea. What happens when USB becomes obsolete? The rest of the world will move on and leave the EU behind? I don't see that there is a problem now.

I hope Apple just supplies an adapter to comply with this so that future Apple products aren't crippled by this requirement.

 

[OllyW]

This is a really dumb idea. What happens when USB becomes obsolete? The rest of the world will move on and leave the EU behind? I don't see that there is a problem now.

Already covered.

Neither does the memorandum stops future improvements to chargers. See http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleases...guiLanguage=en which states: "The Commission welcomes that the MoU will not preclude innovation in the fast moving mobile phone market by fixing a certain technology forever. Therefore, when the time has come, the MoU will adapt to future charging technologies"

 

[aegisdesign]

You mean the 8 old style and 3 micro Nokia chargers i have that are going to end up in a landfill?

Go watch "A Decent Factory" documentary about a factory producing chargers in China when they could have been using mini-USB all along.

What a waste? But I guess it gives people jobs.

And why is the US not mandated this yet? Should have been done years ago!

Actually, I think Nokia are allowing charging via their normal 2mm connector AND MicroUSB. The 2mm pin connector is more robust and carries a higher current than USB allows so charges quicker. So, don't chuck out those chargers.

The change is that they allow you to charge from the MicroUSB port now as well.

 

[BlackSmp]

A Samsung Micro USB charger costs £5 on amazon.co.uk.

That charger would work with any of the phones sold in the EU from next year (as well as some of the most popular phones on the market now).

An Apple charger costs £17.50 on amazon.co.uk (the latest version).

That charger will only work with iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

See why the current situation is unfair for the consumer?

The Apple charger has a USB-A connector so you can plug in any USB-cable to it and use to charge other equipments apart from iPhones.

 

[BlackSmp]

Stella can you explain to me how the consumer benefits if all mobile phones already come with a charger?

If the EU imposed one fits all connector and cable then I agree there would be, after many years, a small cost saving for the consumer but then I would be worried that technological progress would be in the hands of the Eurocrats.

The long term hope is that the phones will be provided without charger in the future.

 

[Daveoc64]

The Apple charger has a USB-A connector so you can plug in any USB-cable to it and use to charge other equipments apart from iPhones.

What is your point?

 

[mytdave]

dumb

I'm going to 'wait and see' what actually comes of this, but I think the whole micro-USB connector is a wholly moronic stupid idea. It's not compatible with anything.

There is already a world-wide standard, and it is a regular USB port. USB ports are everywhere - on almost every computer, in airports, in coffee shops, on car-power-to-USB adapters, and there are millions of existing AC power adapters that output to a USB connector (no cable, just a USB connector).

Why change that? Just require all new adapters to move to a standard USB connector. Adopting a micro-USB connector will force everyone to rework their products and put millions of tons of more crap into landfills. This wasn't thought through very well, but what do you expect from politicians?

 

[ChazUK]

I'm going to 'wait and see' what actually comes of this, but I think the whole micro-USB connector is a wholly moronic stupid idea. It's not compatible with anything.

There is already a world-wide standard, and it is a regular USB port. USB ports are everywhere - on almost every computer, in airports, in coffee shops, on car-power-to-USB adapters, and there are millions of existing AC power adapters that output to a USB connector (no cable, just a USB connector).

Why change that? Just require all new adapters to move to a standard USB connector. Adopting a micro-USB connector will force everyone to rework their products and put millions of tons of more crap into landfills. This wasn't thought through very well, but what do you expect from politicians?

You have this wrong. The Micro USB connector goes into the phone to charge it and the regular USB connector plugs into a normal USB port.

Micro USB cables look like this:

 

[mytdave]

usb/micro usb

You have this wrong. The Micro USB connector goes into the phone to charge it and the regular USB connector plugs into a normal USB port.

Micro USB cables look like this:

Thanks. I know what a USB to micro-USB cable looks like. That's not what I'm saying. The language being used is that all the new power adapters would come with a micro-USB connector, and that's the problem.

If all the new adapters would come with a standard USB connector (and no cable) so people could use a common USB-to-micro-USB cable (or other USB-to-whatever type of cable as needed) then there would be no problem. But that's not what I'm hearing.

 

[ChazUK]

Thanks. I know what a USB to micro-USB cable looks like. That's not what I'm saying. The language being used is that all the new power adapters would come with a micro-USB connector, and that's the problem.

If all the new adapters would come with a standard USB connector (and no cable) so people could use a common USB-to-micro-USB cable (or other USB-to-whatever type of cable as needed) then there would be no problem. But that's not what I'm hearing.

Aah, I see what you are saying now. You want all handsets to come with these rather than a Micro USB charger.

If so I do agree!

Any USB cable + wall mounted USB adapter would work. Apologies for misreading your post.

 

[wreckshop]

I'm going to 'wait and see' what actually comes of this, but I think the whole micro-USB connector is a wholly moronic stupid idea. It's not compatible with anything.

There is already a world-wide standard, and it is a regular USB port. USB ports are everywhere - on almost every computer, in airports, in coffee shops, on car-power-to-USB adapters, and there are millions of existing AC power adapters that output to a USB connector (no cable, just a USB connector).

Why change that? Just require all new adapters to move to a standard USB connector. Adopting a micro-USB connector will force everyone to rework their products and put millions of tons of more crap into landfills. This wasn't thought through very well, but what do you expect from politicians?

How is MORE crap going to end up in landfills? The stuff that's already made that uses proprietary connectors is going to end up in landfills anyways.. so making micro-usb standard changes nothing for them. Its for the stuff that havent been manufactured yet... if these handsets have standardized micro USB, then they wouldnt need a cable and charger included in the box. I can use the micro USB chargers from my BT headset (I have 3) to charge my phone.

How is that a bad thing?

 

[mytdave]

How is MORE crap going to end up in landfills? The stuff that's already made that uses proprietary connectors is going to end up in landfills anyways.. so making micro-usb standard changes nothing for them. Its for the stuff that havent been manufactured yet... if these handsets have standardized micro USB, then they wouldnt need a cable and charger included in the box. I can use the micro USB chargers from my BT headset (I have 3) to charge my phone.

How is that a bad thing?

The reason more crap is going to end up in landfills is that almost everyone, including all the mfgs that make devices with micro-usb ports include a standard USB to micro-USB cable with their device. Their device can already plug into millions (billions?) of computers, car chargers, and AC power adapters that ALREADY have a STANDARD USB plug.

If the standard is changed to MICRO usb ports, then everyone will eventually have to chuck their existing STANDARD usb power adapters and cables and buy new ones with micro-USB connectors on them.

 

[AidenShaw]

Just love those UK plugs - my 380v 3-phase electric clothes dryer had a smaller plug than a UK cellphone....

 

[mytdave]

Aah, I see what you are saying now. You want all handsets to come with these rather than a Micro USB charger.

If so I do agree!

Any USB cable + wall mounted USB adapter would work. Apologies for misreading your post.

No problem. And pictures do help explain when words can confuse.

Standard USB charger + USB to Micro cable = good.
+


Micro USB charger only = bad.