Universal mobile phone chargers coming soon

By Marguerite Reardon on 18 February 2009

BARCELONA — After I've spent years scrounging through drawers looking for the right charger and kicking myself every time I forgot my charger while travelling, the mobile industry has finally decided to make one device that can juice up any mobile phone.

This Micro-USB connector will soon be the standard for all chargers.
(Credit: Motorola)

On Tuesday, the GSMA trade association announced at its 2009 Mobile World Congress here that it has brokered a deal with the world's leading handset makers to come up with a standard for charging mobile phones.

All the major handset makers, including, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, have agreed to use the Micro-USB technology as the common universal charging interface, Rob Conway, GSMA CEO, said during the opening keynote speech on Tuesday. By 2012, the GSMA promises, most mobile phones will use the same kind of connector to charge their batteries.

Seventeen mobile operators, including Vodafone, Orange and Telofonic, announced they are committed to implementing the standard for the universal mobile phone charger.

The GSMA said that going to this single standard will not only make life easier for the more than 3 billion mobile phone users in the world today, but it will also help the environment.

Conway said that the GSMA will push phone manufacturers to develop chargers that consume about 50 per cent less power. The organisation also believes that eliminating the need for people to replace lost chargers will significantly reduce greenhouse gases emitted in the manufacturing and transporting of these extra chargers. It will also mean less waste in landfills because people won't simply throw away chargers when they stop using their old phones.

All in all, it's a huge win for the planet and for me — the consumer. It's such a no-brainer. It makes you wonder why no one thought of this sooner.

One mobile phone maker is conspicuously missing from the GSMA's list of partners: Apple, maker of the popular iPhone. It shouldn't come as a shock that Apple isn't following the rest of the industry on this one, considering that the company has been marching to the beat of its own drummer in mobile from the beginning.

The good news for iPhone users has always been that the connector that's used to recharge the device is the same one used for some Apple iPods. But annoyingly, many iPod docking stations and accessories made by third parties for previous generations of iPods don't work with the iPhone.

Topics: battery, charger, mobile phone, power, mwc2009

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Comments (9)

  • samtaylorphotographer@gmail.com commented on 15/10/2009 21:25 Report abuse

    you would want at least two ports for the above idea as taking memory out for charging would suck

    on memory how hard can it be to make 10 gig the minimum on board memory for what is essentialy a small computer

  • samtaylorphotographer@gmail.com commented on 15/10/2009 21:24 Report abuse

    why not rechargeable aa or aaa batteries??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? gl****

  • samtaylorphotographer@gmail.com commented on 15/10/2009 21:18 Report abuse

    its not that they havent thought of it

    all i can say is MARKETING companies have known they should use usb for phone chargers for years but they make more money that way



    more to the point they should use standard usb ports so you can plug a thumb drive in to the same port and memory sticks could just be a tiny thumb drive themselves which can go into any usb device

    but they wouldnt make as much money f!@#ers !!!!!!!!

  • Frankh commented on 21/05/2009 19:53 Report abuse

    When are they going to standardise mobile phone batteries???
    Also, can't they design a charger that only uses power when its actually charging???

  • Salo commented on 28/02/2009 16:46 Report abuse

    Better if the cord was not "fastened" to the wall-wart, but plugged into a normal USB socket on the wall-wart.

    That way

    a) the power cable can be used to plug into your computer

    b) the charger can provide power to USB drives and charge any other standard USB device

    c) if the cable breaks or wears, the charger does not have to be thrown away, as any standard USB/microUSB cable can be substituted.

  • Elliot commented on 23/02/2009 15:16 Report abuse

    I dont think even phone companies will be so mean as to make you plug in a seperate cord for data when there is a perfectly usable usb port there already.

  • steve9119 commented on 19/02/2009 23:04 Report abuse

    can they also agree to use mini USB for data conections?

  • Dean commented on 18/02/2009 22:21 Report abuse

    It also means operators have an excuse not to include a charger with the phone, and make you pay extra if you want to buy one... maybe I'm just cynical.

  • giu commented on 18/02/2009 21:27 Report abuse

    Unbelievable! Now that is thinking. If only they can do the same with laptops!

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