Life is soon to become a lot easier for Europeans with universal mobile phone chargers. European Commission and companies like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Apple, Samsung and Research in Motion have struck a deal on developing a charger that fits all.
This means that manufacturers would now start using micro-USB connections for phone chargers used for smartphones and users will not have to worry about looking for the “right” charger for their handsets.
Vice-President Günter Verheugen, responsible for enterprise and industrial policy, said:
“I am very pleased that industry has found an agreement, which will make life much simpler for consumers. 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. I am also very pleased that this solution was found on the basis of self-regulation. As a result, the Commission does not consider it necessary to introduce legislation.”
Advantages:
- This would make life easy for people who often lose their phone chargers, or forget them somewhere.
- Cut down waste as people can reuse their old chargers even when they get a new phone. This will lead to a positive environmental impact.
- Standardizing on one technology will help reduce costs.
Memorandum of understanding
The MoU will be accompanied by a new EU standard. With the new standard, safe use of new mobile phones as well as avoidance of radio interference problems will be guaranteed.
It is expected that the first generation of new inter-chargeable mobile phones will reach the EU market from 2010 onwards.
The following companies have signed the MoU:
- Apple
- LG
- Motorola
- NEC
- Nokia
- Qualcomm
- Research in Motion (RIM)
- Samsung
- Sony Ericsson
- Texas Instruments
These 10 companies involved at the time in the deal covers approximately 90% of the European mobile market, which means almost 350 – 400 million users across the EU.
It is being said that the MoU will not foreclose innovation in the future by fixing a certain technology forever, and will accommodate charging technologies in the future.
(Source: Europa press release)