Originally posted on October 29, 2010 @ 3:45 am
Mobile phone users, rejoice! The top mobile phone manufacturers have finally agreed to develop a universal standard for phone chargers.
The agreement, which was signed by Nokia, Sony Ericsson and other manufacturers, paves the way for the development of mobile phones that will accept the same standard charging device as early as next year.
This is really a welcome development. Any mobile phone user knows how much of a hassle it is that whenever we upgrade to a new phone, it generally means we’ll have to use a different charger, basically junking the previous charger. These unused chargers eventually find its way to the garbage dump, which helps create more waste. It’s really not an environment friendly strategy and quite wasteful of resources as well.
Under the agreement, an European Union norm or standard will be implemented and new mobile phones will now use a standard micro-USB socket as a way of ensuring utmost compatibility.
Aside from Nokia and SE, other companies that supported the move included Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments.