NEWS
Wireless industry association the GSMA has announced a cross-industry deal that will see universal phone chargers shipped with the majority of mobiles by 2012.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona today, GSMA CEO Rob Conway said it was long-overdue that the industry found a way to end "the scourge of proprietary chargers".
The new universal chargers will use a micro USB connector - meaning chargers can be reused for future mobiles and won't necessarily need to be automatically bundled with a new phone, cutting down the number of chargers manufactured.
The GSMA has set a target of the majority of phones shipping in 2012 to be compliant with the universal charger.
Conway said: "Over time consumers will only need to have that compliant charger to work with any new compliant handset that they buy in future."
The universal chargers will also have a four-star or higher efficiency rating, which the GSMA says is up to three times more energy-efficient than an unrated charge. It estimates the new chargers will enable a 50 per cent reduction in standby energy consumption.
Mobile makers that have signed on the universal charger line are LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, along with a raft of operators including 3, Orange, Telefonica, T-Mobile and Vodafone. Chipmaker Qualcomm is also backing the plan.
"It's all too rare to get cross-industry agreement," Conway added.
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. misceng
We need the same for PC accessories.
I have power supplies with round connectors in many sizes and many voltages some have positive and negative connections different from most of the others. I get a another one with every new purchase.
In my opinion there should be two power supplies with different sockets for 6V or 16V. Manufacturers could then build all items to use one or the other or provide only the adaptor to convert the supply for their special need.
Perhaps the IEEE could be persuaded to set the standard.
2. anonymous
About bloody time !!!
Laptops
MP3 players
SatNav's
Digital Camera's
PDA's
Wireless Game Console Controllers
PSP/DS's
Bluetooth Accessories
..
next please........
3. Andrew Meredith CEng CITP
Amen to all of the above commentary. Just don't let the manufacturers spin this as a benevolent, carbon inspired gesture on their part. They have had the rest of the industry banging on their doors for years on this one and they finally gave in.
Lets just hope, as the previous commentator said, that this establishes an available charger type for the rest of our gadgets. I have trugs so full of the darned things that I can no longer work out which is for what.
4. Mariana Oliveira
It's wonderful. It'll make our lives easier!
5. Malcolm Baker
Call me an old cynic but didn't I hear recently that the Chinese government had declared that no mobiles were to be sold in China unless they had a micro USB charger facility. The fact that this is one of the few markets left that have masiive growth prospects for mobiles obviously has nothing to do with this current announcement.