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EU Commissioner Wants Standard For Mobile Phone Connectors
Jantastic writes "European Commissioner Günter Verheugen wants manufacturers of mobile phones to come up with a standard connector for chargers and microphones. If companies fail to do so, proposed legislation should speed up this process. In theory, this could improve competition, while enabling longer life cycles for these devices."
You mean like USB and, I dunno... maybe mini-USB?
Any reason why we (consumers) should be against this?
Well, since this is the government, they'll inevitably come up with a standard where the connector is 6 inches long and 3 inches wide, has 874 tiny easily breakable pins, and requires a power brick that weighs 20 pounds. Also, the chargers will cost $438,000.
This is a typical case where pure laissez-faire capitalism can go against the best interests of the consumer. It reminds me of the personal computer industry of the early 1980s, dominated by proprietary, overpriced, non-interoperable components. IBM moved in with its PC and blew the field wide open, paving the way for today's mix-and-match technology.
Today, we need the same thing for cellphones. Given manufacturers' unwillingness to standardise on a connection interface, and given the lack of a massive IBM-like industry giant willing to push an open standard, there is a case for legislative intervention to come up with a freely published and accessible interface.
The cellphone industry would soar ahead if there was an ISO standard for connection of peripherals, power sources and accessories.
-- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
Communism works, but is not escalable to more than one person.
Same deal here. The connector isn't enough. There has to be standardised voltages and currents to make the scheme work.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
...they could go with this.
THL phish sticks
Man, it's a good thing here in the U.S. we don't have any overzealous regulator deciding what kinds of power adapters we should have on mobile phones. Here in the U.S. every vendor decides to make their own unique adapter, with their own unique configuration, and their own labelling, and their own connector, so that we have to have the latest power adapter for every phone every time we upgrade.
Looking over the dozens of adapters I've had to buy over the years, it's great that I can have such a variety of choices. Each of these dozen products clearly demonstrates competition at work. In fact, some companies compete so hard they don't even put the name of the phone on the power adapter, so even though the connectors look alike I have to doublecheck all their UL listings to see which one applies to each phone so I don't burn it out every time I plug it in!
What's great is that, now, some vendors are even creating better lock-in techniques. Some USB adapters I have work on some phones and some devices but not on others. Some old adapters fit perfectly but produce error messages on other devices. As a result I have an awesome drawer filled with tons of high-end technology and I get to sift through it to find the advanced technology I need to run my phone.
The best part is that, if I forget my adapter, the company makes tons of profits on selling after-market power adapters! They make so much money on those $30 aftermarket adapters that they can afford to drop their prices elsewhere! That's why I pay $150 per month for my cellphone service when most poor Europeans pay a few dozen Euros each month for their highly regulated mobile phones.
Living without regulation is really the best way to go. I mean, my mobile phone company charges $15 per month for unlimited text messages, and their profits are so good I get all sorts of benefits from working with them! So many benefits that I can't list them all here.
Hey man, I would like to open MS Office 2007 documents with any office suite of my choice with 100% fidelity. Got it?
I don't get it... how can the same commission that calls for doubling copyright to a ridiculous 95 years also recommend a good-for-the-rest-of-us standard like this? It seems like this commission has some rather conflicted or confused goals and motivations.
As spiegel.de, where I first read about Guenter Verheugens plans, says: "It's a nice idea, but 7 years too late, and your doing it for publicity only!" This commissions' term is nearly over (or at least close enough to being over for this plan to not have a rat's asses chance of being implemented while Guenter is still in office). Thus I can only agree with spiegel's assessment: Verheugen wants to go out with something attentiongrabbing (hereby accomplished) and those plans will be put back into a drawer once he leaves office.
All the comments about "just use USB!" miss one important point: it's not necessarily the best form-factor for a charger. If anything, the Nokia charger is.
-it's tiny and cheap to make: just a 2mm barrel.
-rotational symmetry, unlike USB, so you can plug it in while talking.
-low friction, so it won't damage the phone if the cable gets pulled.
I think the best solution would be to make the Nokia charger plug into a standard, as part of the EIAJ barrel connector standards. Those plugs are already just a series of different-sized barrels, so the Nokia connector would make sense there, at the small end of the range.
This doesn't solve the problem of a data connection. But as far as simple charging goes, nothing beats the Nokia connector.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
Apple will probably require the purchase of an adapter to make their device compatible with the standard.
Everyone in Europe has heard of SCART. Every DVD player, VCR, satellite box, DTV box, and TV I've ever seen in Europe has a SCART socket (or multiple). What's the problem? It's only like requiring a standard kind of socket for the 230V outlets in your room.
I'd be surprised if the EU doesn't adopt mini-USB.
If they do, there's no technical reason not to do the same for the rest of the world.
If anything that the last 30 years of failed american de-regulation have taught us, is that not all government regulations are bad. The mantra that government regulations are bad because they are from the government is silly. You can have smart government, just like you can have dumb government. You can have a smart company, or a dumb company. Regulations aren't there to promote smart or dumb companies. They are just there to encourage companies to be good, while not allowing evil companies to take advantage of consumers, resources, and labor for gains that hurt the populace as a whole.
The rights of a company should not outweight the rights of a consumer when it comes to choice. Right now, I have no choice. If I want a new phone, almost invariably I have to pay for new cables. That has never not happened. I had a cheesy crappy nokia back in 1998, then the palmphone and two treos, and finally an iphone. Even when switching between treos I had to get new cables, phones from the same damn company! That's not a choice, that's a lack of a choice.
Also, considering all those extra cables take up resources to make, and people are probably not properly recycling them, I have an interest in keeping those extras out of landfills. Companies in the US haven't done a good job of telling me where I can recycle them for free.
Of course, there are counter arguments to this, but there's no reason to be dismissing this as "regulation=bad". That era is dead, let it go. The only reason why we aren't in a full depression now is because of government regulations and programs enacted after the great depression which benefit consumers and US citizens.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
It's just another instance of regulations of consumer products. It does generally sound good, but what about regulation of other parts of the phone?
We already have tons of regulations about other parts of the the phone from the standard phone jack to 911 capabilities to FCC allowed frequencies. It seems to be helping.
I see no reason why I can't make a phone that uses whatever charger I want (presuming I'm a cell phone company).
It's that parenthetical that makes me disagree with you. As an individual you have the natural right to make any kind of phone you want. You could even argue that as a small business you can apply those individual rights... provided you don't take advantage of any of the benefits the government confers to small businesses. As a corporation, however, you have no rights beyond what are granted by the government for the good of the people. As a corporation, if you're not benefitting the people when we see fit to regulate you, what incentive to we have to allow you patents, trademarks or copyrights? What incentive do we even have to have the police investigate if people break into your office and take your corporation's possessions? How does spending those tax dollars and inconveniencing citizens help us at all?
Next, let's regulate how much bandwidth any given individual can use at any given period of time.
You see, there you're touching upon individual rights. As a person, you have unalienable, natural rights the government is restricted from messing with. Businesses, especially corporations, however, are not individuals (no matter if they manage to get laws granting them some similar rights).
Or, more similar to this case, let's limit the amount of bandwidth a company can *give* so that it levels the playing field, creates more competition, etc. That way, small company can offer just as good an offer as big company! Better competition!
I think you've completely failed to understand how competition is beneficial and why it is often touted as important to the economy.
All we need is the EU to regulate that, and boom!
In principal, there is no reason the EU should not regulate how much bandwidth a company can offer, assuming they see benefit to society in so doing. I just don't see such benefit and I doubt they do either.
Because we have seen how effective the EU is at stuff like that (like... regulating browser packaging?)
Actually, the EU's competition laws have done a great deal of good in recent years and is a heck of a lot nicer to get a cell phone and plan there than in the states. Your comment about regulating "browser packaging" however makes me lose what little confidence I had in your ability to understand economics or law. The EU has never regulated browser packaging nor proposed to do so. The EU is prosecuting a criminal where as part of the punishment that criminal may or may not be ordered to change how it packages its browser. That's "browser packaging" regulation in the same way that sending a thief to prison is "housing regulations".
maximum power draw of 500 mA @ 5V? {...} Charging takes too damned long already.
Huh... sorry, what do you plan charging that requires 10A on 5V ? A (non-netbook) laptop ? A portable oven ? An arc welder ?
Read again the title.
They want standard data & charge for *mobile* cell phone. For these small candy-bar sized electronic device, which can charge at 500mA for a couple of hours, and which consider 1A as "mad lightning fast turbo charging OMGBBQFTW !!!"
Most phone are quite happy with 500mA and provide 1A only as a convenience for super-impatient users.
If your current monster requires 5A to be able to charge in less than 2 days, maybe you should try considering buying gadgets which are a little bit more energy efficient. The environment will be grateful.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Yeah! And while we're at it, let's let the electric companies provide power at whatever voltage and frequency they want. I mean, it's not like your different alternators all provide 12V current, right? Wait... they do? So all your electrical accessories in your vehicle can expect to get a 12V electrical supply? And you can buy any automotive battery that supplies 12V and it works? Damn.
The reason alternators aren't standardized is because you rarely have to work directly with them. If you had to replace your alternator and battery if you wanted a new radio head unit, you better believe people would be up in arms.
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mandated this years ago, we could be using a DB25 connector on our cell phones today!
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