S Korea & China Mandate Common Chargers, Data Cables

mrbill writes "Seems that South Korea and China have mandated Common Cell Phone chargers and data cables. No proprietary chargers and data cables any more. Must use USB for charging etc. "

Comments

Mandate

[Tekoneiric]

This should happen all over. I wonder how much electronic waste is from cables and wall warts?

Re:Mandate

[Total_Wimp]

This is a totally awesome idea, except it's also stupid as hell.

I've wanted manufacturers to standardize on USB for a few years now. It would truly be wonderful, as many of you have been happy to point out. But what happens when something better comes along? What happens when someone has a great idea, but finds out he can't legally implement it?

I don't know what that idea may be. It could be the ability to safely and seamlessly hop amperage and voltage to much higher levels based on communication between power-only hubs and devices. It may be an even better connection. It may be much faster data that requires two more wires. I really don't know.

If it was an industry association mandating the standard, it would be different. Mavericks with good ideas could at least go it alone and see if anyone bites. Industry giants reading good press about the new connection could push for a change and get it.. That actually happens in the marketplace, but governments don't even come close to moving that quickly. If the law prevents people from getting a new idea to market until the law is changed, or government bureaucracy grinds along, it'll put a big damper on innovation.

Once again, I like USB and I would love all my portable devices to be recharged by it, but once you make differences illegal, you end up paying a heavy price. We shouldn't celebrate a great idea at the moment if it means we'll pay dearly down the road.

TW

But the FREE MARKET!

[Goaway]

But this is BAD NEWS because it's GOVERNMENT CONTROL which is EVIL because the FREE MARKET would produce the BEST RESULT for the CONSUMERS!

Re:But the FREE MARKET!

[Dunbal]

the FREE MARKET

      Oligopolies are not "free market". The current situation produces the best result for the manufacturer :)

now let's get them in cars!

[jspectre]

now this is very nice news. would be even better if car companies put usb plugs right in a car. maybe one for data to play mp3's thru your radio, and a few just to charge various devices. who uses a cigarette lighter socket for cigarettes any more??? do we really need that huge socket plus a usb adapter?

Re:Mostly good news for consumers

[bensafrickingenius]

"However, always beware the law of unintended consequences. It seems likely to me that the costs for this will be passed on to us, one way or another."

I disagree. Costs will go WAY down. Instead of paying high prices for proprietary, hard-to-find cables, we'll be able to cruise into Wal-Martz and ask for a "cell phone cable." "That'll be five dollars, please."

"The mobile manufacturers aren't just going to redesign and retool for free."

One might think that they're already redesigning and retooling with *every* new phone, given that they all have different cables?

Not only positive

[Anonymous Coward]

Nokia gets the credit for using the same connector for all it's phones.

I got bitten by exactly that. I had a Nokia phone that ran out of power, but the charger was at home. So I borrowed a Nokia charger from someone else. I looked for a voltage rating on the phone, but couldn't find any, so in the end thought "ok, both phone and charger is Nokia, and the plugs fit, so let's give it a try".

Took half a year before the battery could hold power for more than a day. Charging a 15 volt Nokia phone (when I got home, I checked the voltage of my own charger) with a 3 volt Nokia charger is very bad for the battery.

Of course, the other way around might be even worse.

Re:amperage

[networkBoy]

you're both right.
The spec calls for 500mA but most vendors connect the port to an *unfused* 5V line. This (IMHO) is a BadIdea (tm). sure you can draw 2A, you can try to draw 100A too but something's gonna give.
Case in point: http://xbx.networkboy.net/modules/gallery/albums/a lbum18/P1000121.jpg
It's a design flaw (in most cases) that you can draw that much current from a USB port.
-nB

Re:Because they don't care enough to pay

[cgenman]

You pay through the nose for the non-standard charger when you have to replace it in a few years, generally between 30 and 50 dollars for a part with a materials cost of at most a dollar.

You pay for it in phones that get thrown out because the non-standard charger tax in a few years makes it more feasable to dump the phone than replace the hideously unstandard wall-wart. Hence, more landfill costs, more materials costs, and a depressed to non-existant secondary market.

You pay for it in electricity, in the trickle costs of the many, many different chargers plugged in but idle in any given household.

You pay for it in brainspace, trying to keep everything clear in your head. Those times you fail to take the proper charger with you on a trip and you have to buy another one when you get there.

And on the other end of the spectrum, all of this is because the hardware companies want to bury hidden costs in the device to make a higher profit. There is no benefit to the end consumer at all. The manufacturers are just trying to raise the barrier of entry of selling replacement parts to keep those prices artifically high.

Well, guess what? The consumer does have a voice in making things fair. It's called the government. That's why you elect them. It doesn't always work, but that's what it's for. And in this case, the free market has had years to fix the problem, and it has only gotten worse. The amount of cheering on this thread is evidence of the animosity towards this purely profit-taking process.

This is people, seeing a problem and taking an action to improve the end-consumer experience and reduce overall costs. And good for them. It's nice to see a government that isn't kow-towing to every exploitive commercial process within its borders.