Wise concession
Proprietary mobile phone charger standards have been an annoyance to end users for some time as well as being a significant source of waste as people switch phone brands and discard their obsolete chargers.
This issue came to the attention of the European Commission (EC) and it suggested mobile phone handset and component makers ‘voluntarily' come up with a solution before it has to get medieval on them.
Wisely they have, and it's called Micro-USB. This is a slightly smaller version on the Mini-USB interface common in some phones and many consumer electronics devices like digital cameras and MP3 players.
The following companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding that was submitted to the EC today, committing to begin manufacturing on this basis from 2010 and thus pre-empting the need for legislation:
- Apple
- LG
- Motorola
- NEC
- Nokia
- Qualcomm
- Research In Motion
- Samsung
- Sony Ericsson
- Texas Instruments
