About Time: Standard for a Universal Cell Phone Charger Announced.
By Jin Nan Goto
One real annoyance of modern technology may not be around much longer. The days when the types of power cables between different handsets varied widely are numbered. The GSMA announced a agreement between 17 cell phone companies and several major handset makers (LG, Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson) which will work to make Micro-USB the standard connector type for Cell phones. This is a very welcome change (although one that will probably cost the Cell phone companies a good chuck of lost revenue), and micro USB is a very good choice as it can be used to transfer power and data. Since the cables can be reused with other phones and devices, consumers will spend less money on chargers and less of these cables will be sent off to landfills.
Mini and Micro USB chargers are already widely used in for handsets. Motorola, RIM (makers of Blackberry), and HTC (uses a mini USB connector for the G1). China already mandated that all cell phones in China be able to charge through USB. In fact, whenever I buy a cell phone I go out of my way to makes sure that it can be charged by USB. However many of these phones use an older USB specification “Mini USB” and not “Micro USB” which is the new proposed standard. Meaning, I’ll need to buy at least one more car charger.
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