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

[JoEw]

it's funny in a way 30pin has sort of become an unofficial standard since there are sooo many people with ipods. Almost all my friends, coworkers and so on have an a 30pin usb cable and there laptop/desktop.


Don't get me wrong i think standards are great, ive been waiting for this to come to sell phones for the longest time. But i am really gonna miss 30pin all my accessories and docks won't work

 

[Reed Rothchild]

Well this certainly sucks. Why in the world would anyone think it's a good idea to give governments this kind of power?

You may want to research this a bit more. For example, the regulation of broadband and mobile providers. Amazingly enough, such actions resulted in real competition in the EU, resulting in more choice and cheaper providers for the consumer. I'm all for the free market when the market is actually free. When it isn't then regulation is actually carried out to benefit you, the consumer. Unless you're the CEO of AT&T, in which case I take it all back.

 

[Cromulent]

Repeating a previous post… I don’t dispute the fact that Europe was too fragmented. The way it is setup and the power Brussels has to pass law on the different countries I definitely dispute.

The only reason Brussels has that power is because the elected governments of those countries came to an agreement to allow it. It's not like some invading army taking over control.

If you don't like it vote for the BNP.

 

[BaldiMac]

it's funny in a way 30pin has sort of become an unofficial standard since there are sooo many people with ipods. Almost all my friends, coworkers and so on have an a 30pin usb cable and there laptop/desktop.


Don't get me wrong i think standards are great, ive been waiting for this to come to sell phones for the longest time. But i am really gonna miss 30pin all my accessories and docks won't work

Nothing needs to change with the 30 pin dock connector. It's the connection on the charger that is changing (probably with an adapter). The other end of the cable.

 

[6EQUJ5]

Confusion Reigns In This Discussion!

If the article wasn't foggy enough, I'm even more unsure after reading through 5 pages of comments!

1)

I highly doubt apple will have both 30 pin and micro usb ports on ipods, iphones and ipads - not an apple solution.

2)

I somewhat doubt Apple changing their european wall adapters from female usb ports to micro usb ports. The Euro and UK versions of the wall adapters for iphones have been out less than a year. They would have already implemented micro usb.

so my deduction is that you will get a little adapter that looks like the iPad camera connection kit adapters with your iphone in 2011. one end will be a male apple 30-pin and the other side a female micro usb.

that seems like the most plausible redesign.

 

[3247]

Please get your facts right:

1. It is not a law (directive or ordinance). It's a Memorandum of Understanding signed by major mobile phone makers, including Apple.
2. The technical specification just says:
   • The charger must comply with the USB charging specification.
   • The cable must end in a Micro-USB-B plug.
   • If the cable is detachable, the interface on the charger side must be USB-A.
   It does not say anything at all about the phone.

 

[koruki]

I don't think Apple needs to change anything, they use the exact same cable on every device to charge as well as transmit data. If they are forced to add a separate usb charger you'll end up with two cables instead of 1. The current 30pin works off USB for charging anyway. Since the iPod, most people have a couple of the 30pin's laying around every single house.

 

[spacemanspifff]

Hopefully, now that we have reached 5+ pages on this thread, everyone now understands that this is not about the iPhone having to have an extra micro-USB port or the end of the Apple 30 pin connector - it's about the charger! Unfortunately, this was not made clear in the original post.

So, you'll still need to have your phones cable with you when you travel, but you may find that you do not need to bring the charger too as all new cables will need to fit into any micro-USB charger. Also, when you buy a new phone, you wont need to bin the old charger and in time you'll probably not be supplied a charger with new phones or it will be supplied as an optional extra.

All that will change, is that in Europe Apple will have to supply a USB to micro-USB adaptor in the box. Alternatively, they could supply a cable with a USB/micro-USB split end which would save having to carry the adaptor around [this would be my favourite].

They will also need to change the port on their European chargers [if they plan to keep making them] to a micro USB port too, so that other phones can use it.

 

[firewood]

That would defeat the whole point of the proposed legislation.

This legislation can't force Apple to remove their audio/video/medical/industrial dock connector (unless they want patients using the dock connector to attach to their glucose monitors, etc., to die.)

USB can't replace it (especially for video), so the very proprietary locked-down connector will remain.

The European model will be 1 cm taller and much uglier, but the bottom portion of the phone (with the micro USB) will snap away to reveal a (ta da) proprietary "internal" dock connector.

Thus, most customers will simply lose the ugly bottom portion and defeat this stupid legislation themselves.

Or they'll do something similar with a 2-part cable. (micro USB in the middle).

 

[elppa]

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?

Can you point to where it has to go?

To be honest I think this is like the MacBook ports. Apple's gone for thin and that really limits you. There isn't much spare capacity.

The people who called a €29 micro USB adapter appearing in the Apple Online Store in Janruary to 'comply' have it spot on. Apple won't see this as an inconvenience, this is a business opportunity.

 

[amirite]

Please get your facts right:

1. It is not a law (directive or ordinance). It's a Memorandum of Understanding signed by major mobile phone makers, including Apple.
2. The technical specification just says:
   • The charger must comply with the USB charging specification.
   • The cable must end in a Micro-USB-B plug.
   • If the cable is detachable, the interface on the charger side must be USB-A.
   It does not say anything at all about the phone.

LA LA LA IM NOT LISTENING

 

[nascimento]

The only reason Brussels has that power is because the elected governments of those countries came to an agreement to allow it. It's not like some invading army taking over control.

If you don't like it vote for the BNP.

I am not British I am concentrating very hard to write in english!!!

You said it all when "the elected government of those countries came to an agreement" having been elected did not give them the right to bulldozer everyone into those agreements. Most were passed without being openly discussed and if discussed were done in such a way that most Europeans did not understand what was happening to their sovereignty. (oh and the carrot given to the poorer countries was always a few extra billion euros of subsidies)

Unfortunately people have been formatted to believe what is told to them and are totally disinterested in what is happening to their freedom.

Standardization of cables may be good for us in the near term but may be bad if taken to the extreme. We will end up all standardized something Brussels adores.

 

[JAT]

Nothing needs to change with the 30 pin dock connector. It's the connection on the charger that is changing (probably with an adapter). The other end of the cable.

Just how many little pieces of wire do you want to string together between device and power source? Either they mandate the phone connector itself or they are making it worse.

Although, my phone already uses this connector. 2.5 years old, one of the first to do so. When my first car charger broke, I couldn't even buy a new one, now they are $.03 on Amazon.

 

[cubist]

About time! Get rid of the stupid dock connector

I hate using the "dock connector". It feels terrible connecting. Connecting the ipod touch once a day, I'm doubtful the connector will last even one year. It's flimsy and cheap feeling. And why in the world does it need so many contacts anyway? Poor design, imo.

Straight USB for charging, and wifi or bluetooth for syncing, is the way to go. Can we have inductive charging?

There are after all two main categories of connectors: Those that have failed, and those that haven't yet. From day 1, the Apple connector feels like it yearns to be in the former category.

 

[sp86]

That's awesome . Wonder when US will implement this ?

Late last week, Deutsche Welle reported that the European Commission has formally approved a policy that will require nearly all smartphones and simpler data-enabled phones to adopt a standard micro-USB charging connector as of January 2011. The policy is a formalization of an agreement signed by ten top mobile phone manufacturers, including Apple, last year.As Wired notes, it is unclear how Apple plans to comply with the standard, given its proprietary 30-pin connector compatible with all existing iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch models, as well as certain other iPod models and a host of accessories.The European Commission is the executive body for the European Union, which comprises 27 countries with a total of over 500 million people. Consequently, design changes adopted to meet European Union standards are almost certain to trickle down to the rest of the world to provide for simpler design and manufacturing processes, as well as to ensure interoperability.

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

 

[jettredmont]

I would think they would simply include an adaptor that would allow you to connect the phone to a micro-usb charger. An adaptor wouldn't be that costly.

Which of course completely misses the point (that you can use any charger even when you forget yours) ... How often do you think someone will have that adapter with them when they don't have their charger?

 

[BaldiMac]

Just how many little pieces of wire do you want to string together between device and power source? Either they mandate the phone connector itself or they are making it worse.

How is it worse? The adapter is only necessary if you are using a charger that you couldn't have used otherwise.

 

[Carbonide]

We will end up all standardized something Brussels^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H every single government in the world adores.

T,FTFY.

 

[sishaw]

I would think they would simply include an adaptor that would allow you to connect the phone to a micro-usb charger. An adaptor wouldn't be that costly.

Or just add the micro-USB alongside their connector. Isn't a micro-USB extremely small?

also, does this regulation prohibit the use of a proprietary charger, as long as the single charger standard is also supported? I don't think so.

 

[JAT]

I hate using the "dock connector". It feels terrible connecting. Connecting the ipod touch once a day, I'm doubtful the connector will last even one year. It's flimsy and cheap feeling. And why in the world does it need so many contacts anyway? Poor design, imo.

Well, I'm no fan of the huge, delicate connectors, also a little paranoid about them. But I will say I've had my iPod Touch for 2.5 years and it is still fine. I connect it all the time at home, work, and in the car.

And the contacts are for all the capabilities it offers. Audio, video, USB, Firewire (mine does), power.

 

[Reed Rothchild]

Imagine if every TV manufacturer decided to create their own proprietary plug in order to power the device. Does that sound like a good idea?

 

[BaldiMac]

Which of course completely misses the point (that you can use any charger even when you forget yours) ... How often do you think someone will have that adapter with them when they don't have their charger?

That's not the point. The point is to make the chargers compatible, so you don't have to replace them when you get a different phone.

 

[bigmc6000]

I hate using the "dock connector". It feels terrible connecting. Connecting the ipod touch once a day, I'm doubtful the connector will last even one year. It's flimsy and cheap feeling. And why in the world does it need so many contacts anyway? Poor design, imo.

Straight USB for charging, and wifi or bluetooth for syncing, is the way to go. Can we have inductive charging?

There are after all two main categories of connectors: Those that have failed, and those that haven't yet. From day 1, the Apple connector feels like it yearns to be in the former category.

What?? I use a connector to connect my iPhone literally multiple times a day and I'm still using the connector I got with my first gen iPhone. The dock connector needs all those contacts so you aren't sitting around for a freakin' eon waiting for those 5GBs of music to transfer to your iPhone/iPod. Wifi = not as fast as direct connect, same goes for BT but doubly so.

This is retarded, let's move to some itty bitty cable that's capable of nothing but charging instead of a 30-pin dock that has a plethora of uses, yeah, that's genius.

Apple is just going to give the EU customers an adapter and have them deal with it - they aren't going to cripple the functionality of the phone (or the hundreds of millions of accessories made for the dock) because some idiots in Brussels thought it would be a good idea.

 

[jettredmont]

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

Remember that some of those "docks and accessories" cost $60,000 (BMWs) and I would really hate to see that kind of thing happen.

If Apple drops the dock connector, I suspect they'd offer a "dock connector" adapter for existing accessories which would be guaranteed to work with the most popular and pricey of the accessories produced in the past, say, 2-3 years. Anything short of that would be horrible press.

That having been said, I really can't see Apple dropping their proprietary connector. The dock connector allows Apple to gatekeep what connects to an iPod/iPhone/etc, and also makes it obvious to a consumer which accessories are made to work with an iPod. Yes, they can get some of that control back without the hardware, but the logo program isn't nearly as strong a gatekeeper as a physical design patent program is, and not nearly as universally enforced.

Still, that's kinda the point of the law (allow any old charger to hook up to provide charging capabilities, not necessarily transfer/etc, but I suspect required capabilities will expand in the future). It's meant to bust hardware gatekeeping schemes like Apple's dock connector. I just don't see Apple giving in any more than they need to in order to satisfy the letter of the law here, though.

 

[MacFly123]

So how about the fact that no Macs have micro USB ports? So their would be an adaptor no matter what?

I have a better idea... WIFI & LIGHT PEAK!