A common complaint we hear from consumers is the plethora of phone charger types that cause those with several phones in a household to often have different chargers. The problem is that many phones use different connectors that OEMs adopt for their own phones, often to try and sell more accessories for the phone.
The initiative in the EU similar to what we heard about earlier this year has been signed by most of the major phone makers; the companies agreed on the micro-USB connector for all smartphones. The agreement has been signed by Apple, Nokia, RIM, Motorola, LG, Samsung, Texas Instruments and Sony Ericsson. The agreement only applies to smartphones.
It will be interesting to see if this agreement spreads to other countries. Apple is notorious for using the special dock connector for the iPhone (pictured) and it would appear expensive for them to have two different connectors after the switch to micro-USB is made in the next few years.
Could easily be solved if Apple just terminates the dock cable with female microUSB (and includes a microUSB to USB cable), I’d think.
At least, that’d be the easiest way for them to do it.
All the places I’ve seen this agreement blogged seems to imply that Apple will abandon their current dock connector. Maybe they will, but AFAICT, the agreement doesn’t force them to do so. Is it really that expensive to have a microUSB port that’s used just for power?
BTW, if they do abandon their current dock connector, how long before the people who complain about the proprietary dock connector complain about Apple abandoning it instead? (i.e., they’d argue that Apple is screwing them over because they’ve already invested all that money in HW which uses the proprietary connector.)
James, can you provide a link regarding the bit about this only applying to smartphones? I thought it applied to all phones but it seems a bit pointless if it’s limited to smartphones. I’ll be less excited about this if that turns out to be true.
From the Reuters link above:
“The chargers will be usable only for data-enabled phones, which have more capability than just standard calls and SMS texts. Data-enabled phones are expected to account for almost half of all new mobile handset purchases in 2010.”
Thanks James. I was looking for the actual word smartphone :)
That is disappointing and it’s unclear why they would make that distinction given the small proportion of the overall market that smartphones make up (even accounting for the 50% by 2010 statistic). This initiative is supposed to be about the environment so I can’t see the point of linking this to a particular type of phone. Well done EU.
Here’s some more information direct from the EU:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/09/301&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
The smartphone description is actually a little misleading as they’re simply talking about phones that exchange data via usb. That’s not limited to smartphones – for example, the RAZR had a usb port on it. As such, I’m a little surprised by the 50% statistic as I assumed that all phones include a USB port these days.
I hardly think Apple is going to give up their dock connector. They have done a lot of work to make the connector ubiquitous (partially by keeping it fairly consistent, unlike other companies that tend to change plugs every other model generation). An entire economy has sprung up around that connector. They aren’t going to burn that bridge, especially now that they are opening it up more to software in the 3.0 SDK.
The dock connector can do a lot of stuff (audio/video out, etc.) that simply can’t be done directly over a generic USB connection. Apple will either go the lazy route and throw an adapter in every EU-destined box, or just slap another $0.20 port onto the bottom of the phone and designate it for charging only.
There is no way they are going to give up the revenue stream of a licensed, proprietary connector that differentiates them from the rest of the market.
PLEASE no, I hate mini usb connectors on cell phones as they don’t click into place. With a charger connected if you pull the phone to your ear the cable will keep falling out. This drove me nuts on WM phones. Maybe if they add some kind of latching mechanism.
This will bleed over to the US, but perhaps not all US phones will have it. Nokia’s newer phones already use MicroUSB for data, it would actually save some money to also use that port also for power. In fact, it boggles the mind why they haven’t done it already.
And yes, unlike the MiniUSB cables, the MicroUSB cables DO click into place.
Ahhh!! I’m in click heaven, good news !!