EU commissioner pushing for standard connector for all cellphones

While some companies like Connectland have already offered up their own solution to the problem of multiple cellphone connectors (seen at right), a European Union commissioner now seems to be taking the idea one step further, and is starting to push the notion of one standard cellphone connector to rule them all. According to Telcompaper, European Commissioner for Industry Günter Verheugen recently said in a German interview that he has had his patience tested after giving the cellphone industry several chances to develop a single cellphone connector, and he's now not excluding "severe measures" to force them to reach a solution. His main concern, as you might have guessed, is the waste that results from folks needing a new charger for each new cellphone, although the cellphone industry obviously sees things a bit differently, with the EICTA's Tony Graziano saying that Verheugen's demand is "legally and technically impossible" due to differences in voltage and battery requirements within the European Union. In any event, it seems that some actual regulations are still quite a ways off from becoming a reality, and Verheugen still insists that he'd prefer to see the industry arrive at a standard voluntarily.

[Via Tweakers.net]

[Fernando @ Feb 15th 2009 9:21PM]

Mini USB

/thread

[chrisk1590 @ Feb 15th 2009 9:23PM]

agree

[jeesusfreek @ Feb 15th 2009 9:23PM]

yeah, seriously. voltage requirements different? i'm not buying that load of crap until he comes up with some definitive proof that it's unworkable.

[a ham sandwich @ Feb 15th 2009 9:27PM]

seconded.

[George @ Feb 15th 2009 9:27PM]

you spelled micro wrong

[RoboDan @ Feb 15th 2009 10:37PM]

I was just going to say!

"And they shall call it... Mini USB!
What!?... They already have that? Well let's make something new and more complicated so we can 'stimulate' our economy (/screw everyone over)"

+100 for OP

[James @ Feb 15th 2009 10:53PM]

Seriously +1

I heart mini USB; best part which is I carry the same cable currently that syncs my mp3 player, hooks up my compact external HD, charges my motorola phone, and connects my digital camera.

[Fnuky @ Feb 16th 2009 4:29AM]

Chargers will have a standard USB type A and most of the handsets will have MicroUSB and there will be standard cables in between the two.

I claim my five dollars in advance of the announcement later this week :-)

[Greg Mcp @ Feb 15th 2009 9:22PM]

Hell yes.
Lotsa luck in making the Fruit Company conform.

[Chuckles McGee @ Feb 15th 2009 11:33PM]

Darn them and their tasty fruits.

[weg @ Feb 16th 2009 5:40AM]

@thefruitcompany: How dare they? The fruit was invented by Steve Jobs!! I hope Apple will sue the hell out of them!!

[Lando Calrissian @ Feb 15th 2009 9:22PM]

USB plz. One of my favorite things about my RAZR V3xx is that it uses Mini-USB, and since I have a ton of the cables around the house (from Canon cameras, drawing tablet, etc.) I am always near a cable for it.

[William C Bonner @ Feb 15th 2009 10:53PM]

I've run into lots of Motorola phones that say "unauthorized charger" when I try to charge from the charger for my htc phone, or charge using a mini usb cable and my apple ipod power brick, which is my standard travel charger.

[Kris S. @ Feb 15th 2009 9:23PM]

Well, at least the EU did something right for once.

[Patriks7 @ Feb 15th 2009 9:27PM]

Which can't be said about the US..

[FOREX @ Feb 15th 2009 9:24PM]

Does the European commission have nothing better to do with its time then sue Microsoft for including browsers and force cell phone manufacturers to all use the same connector. Someone ought to let them know there's a global recession on...

[PrimalSteak @ Feb 15th 2009 9:26PM]

Hopefully no matter what standardized solution they come to in the EU, you'll still need an extra adapter to get it to work in North America ;)

[mnemonicj @ Feb 15th 2009 9:29PM]

This is a horrible idea! I purchased my first Nokia phone in 1999 and I could use the same AC adapter for all of my Nokia phones up until 2 years ago. Then, Nokia sold little adapters that would change the older AC adapter connector to the current AC adapter connector. They were cheap and I bought a few. Now I have about 7 AC adapters in my house that work for my phone, but if I Nokia has to conform to this standard and I get a new Nokia phone, there goes 7 AC adapters and two car adapters in the trash.

[invincible @ Feb 15th 2009 9:48PM]

The whole point of this idea is so that other people get to enjoy the same benefits that you have, and well into the future too. Not everyone has the same brand loyalty and besides, I found that using an old charger + adapter doesn't work on all Nokia phones. My E65 refuses to be charged by a charger that came with a 7250.

[Mike @ Feb 15th 2009 9:48PM]

Your nokia should go in the trash too. Having a standard USB connector for everything would allow you to do much more with your phone anyways, so stop whining.

[FILA @ Feb 15th 2009 9:30PM]

Wait till USB 3.0 comes out next year and make it a standard to have on all cell phones a mini plug

[Mike @ Feb 15th 2009 9:49PM]

usb 3.0 is a power wasting nightmare atm and until they revise the spec it'll only see minimal application.

[Darwin @ Feb 15th 2009 9:33PM]

Günter Verheugen, my new hero.

[KAIKAI @ Feb 15th 2009 9:35PM]

^ here here ! =]
finally

[JackSeoul @ Feb 15th 2009 9:38PM]

In Korea, all cell phone chargers and data cables have been standard across manufacturers for the last 3 years or so. Phones are now sold without chargers. I believe it's the same wide annoying plug that Samsung phones use in the US.

They've just recently migrated to a smaller (but more sturdy) plug which is also used for mic/headphone connection. But it's electrically compatible with the wider plug and the new phones come with very small adapter for the old standard charger.

[erufiku @ Feb 15th 2009 11:47PM]

It's the same in Japan as far as I know.

[you @ Feb 15th 2009 9:39PM]

how about no connector? wireless charging please?

[Dr.A @ Feb 15th 2009 9:44PM]

Same in japan. The charger is 100-240V 50/60Hz. In matches box size.

[bebop @ Feb 15th 2009 9:56PM]

Yeah I noticed that, but still the Docomo doesn't work with the AU KDDI and the softbank one is different again.

[BigD145 @ Feb 15th 2009 10:06PM]

What? We need more connectors. More is better, right?

[Joshua Walters @ Feb 15th 2009 10:09PM]

Mini-USB seems like a logical option.

The EU would be large enough to make it pretty much standard internationally, so Im hoping that it will happen, and it wont be something obscure or lame.

[Ry @ Feb 15th 2009 10:10PM]

mini usb alll de wayy

[jhracer3 @ Feb 15th 2009 10:54PM]

Interesting idea, but it will never work. Mini-usb cant deliver enough power for most smart phones, so it won't be the be all to end all solution. A better idea would be a standardized set of connectors, ie the cell phone company can choose to use either connector 1, which is some kind of sub-mini USB sized connector, connector 2, which is mini USB, or connector 3, which is something much larger, like the ipod connector or the samsung smartphone connector. The cell makers are going to go with the first one or two for everything that doesn't need the power, so you end up with all the really small phones using the first connector, the vast majority of phones in general using mini USB, and all of the smartphones using the third connector.

Having three connectors like that makes it at least a little more feasible.

[jonwil2002 @ Feb 16th 2009 1:32AM]

Care to cite on that statement?
Motorola have been using Mini-USB for data and power on all their phones for ages now including the Motorola Q which is a full featured Windows Mobile smartphone.

I have yet to see a mobile phone where the power requirements would exceed what Mini-USB can provide.

[Fnuky @ Feb 16th 2009 5:12AM]

In short: both Mini and Micro USB can deliver easily enough power to charge a smartphone, but they don't have to!

It's a pretty easy confusion to make.

The USB standard says that every USB certified charger must supply at least 0.5A. 0.5A is too little for some phones, especially to charge from a dead battery!

A well designed phone will always charge from a 0.5A USB source, but may be slow.

However, the standard allows for USB chargers to supply up to 1.8A or the limit of the connector (MicroUSB is 1.5A limit. That's plenty for any phone these days.

You can't use Mini USB because the USB forum has decided to kill it in favour of Micro USB. But that's a good thing as MicroUSB is much smaller and fits in smaller phones, so can be more universal.

[chris @ Feb 15th 2009 10:49PM]

one plug to rule them all?

[someguy7234 @ Feb 16th 2009 11:34AM]

Screw that, I hate the waste that is produced when every time I get a new charger I need to get a new case.... One phone to rule them all.

Might I suggest this classic,
http://www.oaktreeent.com/web_photos/Telephones/Motorola_Brick_Cell_Phone_web.jpg

[JaxTJ @ Feb 15th 2009 10:56PM]

While mini USB would be preferable, I didn't mind the system in Japan. AU used one connector, DoCoMo uses another, etc. That way, if you stay with your same provider, it doesn't matter what phone you get.

[Graeme Smith @ Feb 15th 2009 11:04PM]

While Mini USB is good in some ways, how about something like the iPod dock connector? Apple for one is NEVER going to put a mini USB port on the iPhone. And something like the dock connector is more flexible anyway (audio pass through, thinner, ability to use docking cradles etc.) If something flexible like that were a standard that would rock.

[MikeS @ Feb 15th 2009 11:45PM]

It's about time. It's not like someone is really going to come up with a clever new connector that is significantly better than the existing one. Let the manufacturers standardize and, if they really have a good new idea, let the new ideas deploy every five years.

[Dan @ Feb 15th 2009 11:11PM]

How about no. The only reason Apple doesn't put mini usb is because everything Apple is proprietary. Mini-USB is the best choice because it's already standardized.

[Thom06 @ Feb 15th 2009 11:16PM]

Wait...I thought this had already been decided ages ago...and the new standard is micro-usb???? Seems to me every manufacturer is using this except Samsung (who insists on using different ports for every model of phone...at least on Verizon...).

[Raymond @ Feb 15th 2009 11:50PM]

China already requires all cellphone sold to be charge by mini-usb port.

[Michael @ Feb 15th 2009 11:52PM]

sprint does that on their phones, or atleast used to

[Discosis @ Feb 15th 2009 11:56PM]

Didn't China try to force everyone to standardise on Mini USB a couple of years ago?

[Lalo Martins @ Feb 16th 2009 12:18AM]

Last year the Chinese government told manufactors it was mini-usb or the highway, and we all lived happy ever after.

[Mike @ Feb 16th 2009 7:04AM]

Mini USB (charge+data) and 3.5mm head phone jack seems to be a good and common standard. For fast charging, they can use double power Mini USB (like some disk drives).

Manufacturers can add a special cradle connector if they must, since cradles depend on the shape of the form anyway.

[Daniel @ Feb 16th 2009 2:42AM]

Great idea, as long as they don't come up with another aberration like the Euroconnector.

[Richard @ Feb 16th 2009 3:24AM]

Europe came out with the scart plug - the worst connector ever made IMO.

There is already a nice workable mini usb compatible plug used by HTC, which has the other connectors as well for the audio and stuff - that to me is the way to go, but make a higher current part of the standard so that actual chargers can charge at a decent rate vs the 500mA crap that USB offers.

Make sure that the phones are able to negotiate for power when plugged into USB even when totally flat, so that it doesnt end up like a razr where you can charge it till you let it get totally dead, then you have to find a charger.

[Fnuky @ Feb 16th 2009 5:16AM]

Ding ding - we have a winner! Yes, a universal charger needs to supply a higher current than the 500mA minimum guaranteed by USB 1 or 2. USB 3 mandates 900mA, so that's a good start.

Only point I'd make is that it's stupid using the same connector for data and audio like HTC have done. Just stick a damned 3.5mm audio jack on for the headset and use the industry standard USB connector for power / data