About frackin' time, Standardized mobile phone chargers in Europe.

[Viking]

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090629/tc_afp/eutelecommobileconsumerregulate

I'm actually a bit surprised that ragtag bunch of misfits that make up the European Union have managed to pull their fingers out of their ass and doing this. That a single state like Japan, The USA or China didn't do this first and basically picked the world standard on it's own first really surprises me.

Maybe it takes an otherwise completely irrelevant legislative body so pointless that nobody bothers to bribe/lobby to do such an obviously logical and sensible thing first.

Europe to get standard mobile phone charger

    * Posted on - Mon Jun 29, 2009 11:58AM EDT

BRUSSELS (AFP) -

The mobile phone industry on Monday agreed to roll out a new pan-European standard phone charger from next year that supporters hope will be taken up around the world.

The agreement came after after threats of legally binding EU rules.

The European Commission has said it is eager to do away with the plethora of charger models, which create a headache for users as well as generating several thousand tons of waste each year.

Following the agreement, the first inter-changeable mobile phones and chargers are due to hit the market next year, the European Union's executive arm said.

The new standard is to be based on the micro USB (universal serial bus) connector that most mobile phones capable of transmitting data already have for connecting to a computer.

While most mobile phones already such data transmitting connectors, in the future they will also be used to charge up a phone's battery.

The commission estimated that it would take about three years for most mobile phones to be replaced with products that use the new standard once the new models become available next year.

"I am very pleased that industry has found an agreement, which will make life much simpler for consumers," EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said.

"They will be able to charge mobile phones anywhere from the new common charger. This also means considerably less electronic waste, because people will no longer have to throw away chargers when buying new phones."

The companies that signed the agreement cover 90 percent of the market with industry leaders including Apple, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research in Motion (RIM), Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Texas Instruments.

Verheugen was hopeful that the new European standard would eventually create a global trend.

"We are assuming that this new European standard will have a knock on effect globally and that manufacturers won't be just doing this on the European market, but will be doing this on other markets with Europe," he told a news conference.

He said that the same technology could be applied to other products such as computers and cameras, but that the commission had targetted the mobile industry first in order to go faster.

The BEUC European consumer association welcomed the agreement, but was uneasy with the fact that it was purely voluntary, noting that past such agreements were not honoured.

"We very much welcome (the agreement) but it has to be ensured that it is put in place. As a voluntary agreement, we cannot be sure," a BEUC telecoms expert said.

[MadImmortalMan]

Single state? 


You silly man.

[saskganesh]

I approve of this government interference with the free market.

the charger redundancy is a real racket.

[MadImmortalMan]

I approve of this government interference with the free market.

the charger redundancy is a real racket.

Yeah, and the profit margins on all those adapters are insane.

[Viking]

I approve of this government interference with the free market.

the charger redundancy is a real racket.

I've got like six or seven different kinds of chargers in my old electronics box.

[DontSayBanana]

It is a racket, but so is declaring a "standard" adapter: virtually all phones nowadays have USB connections, and guess what? The standard USB connector provides 5 volts via pin 1.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Maybe it takes an otherwise completely irrelevant legislative body so pointless that nobody bothers to bribe/lobby to do such an obviously logical and sensible thing first.

immense amounts of lobbying go on with the EU commission, parliament and ministerial councils. It's pretty nasty

[Alatriste]

It is a racket, but so is declaring a "standard" adapter: virtually all phones nowadays have USB connections, and guess what? The standard USB connector provides 5 volts via pin 1.

You didn't read the article, right?

The new standard is to be based on the micro USB (universal serial bus) connector that most mobile phones capable of transmitting data already have for connecting to a computer.

Mobile phones makers are using chargers to rip off their clients (the rackett is so shameless, many companies make several non-compatible models for their own phones) and besides, they could have switched to USB-based chargers years ago, but didn't.

And Viking is just wrong, if only because the standard has been decided by the Commission (but the Parliament isn't 'pointless' any more; still has some way to go before it becomes a true legislative body for all of Europe, but the new treaties have given additional powers to it).

Finally the Union has always been very good at stablishing standards precisely because it deals with three dozens of industrial countries which usually had their own national standards, too many times non compatible.

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newapproach/standardization/harmstds/index_en.html

[Brazen]

The next generation of mobile device batteries will be induction charged anyway.

In the meantime, I approve of this move.

[Warspite]

It's certainly useful, but I do not see why this should have been a pressing concern of governments or standards bodies.

We don't demand laptop chargers be interchangable, for example, or MP3 player chargers.

[DisturbedPervert]

Are cell phone chargers really that expensive?  I remember paying a few bucks for a new charger for my old Nokia. 

[saskganesh]

It's certainly useful, but I do not see why this should have been a pressing concern of governments or standards bodies.

We don't demand laptop chargers be interchangable, for example, or MP3 player chargers.

its what standards bodies do. this is low hanging fruit and there is, I think , some demand. other appliances will maybe follow.

do note it is a voluntary standard.

[saskganesh]

Are cell phone chargers really that expensive?  I remember paying a few bucks for a new charger for my old Nokia.

I paid 40 bucks this spring for a non branded recharger. it would have been 45 for the branded one, but the store was sold out, which would have fucked me.

[Scipio]

I haven't had a phone that wasn't usb charged in seven years.

[Richard Hakluyt]

It's not just a matter of cost, the plethora of chargers for various devices is really irritating, the sooner there is convergence to a small range of standard chargers the better.