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EU Committee Votes To Make All Smartphone Vendors Utilize a Standard Charger

Posted by Soulskill on from the which-will-surely-go-into-effect-in-a-timely-manner dept.

Deathspawner writes "The EU has been known to make a lot of odd decisions when it comes to tech, but one committee's latest vote is one that most people will likely agree with: Standardized smartphone chargers. If passed, this decision would cut down on never having the right charger handy, but as far as the EU is concerned, this is all about a reduction of waste. The initial vote went down on Thursday, and given its market saturation, it seems likely that micro USB would be the target standard. Now, it's a matter of waiting on the EU Parliament to make its vote."

7 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. Sure, it's good today by ThatAblaze · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This bill had better have an expiration date, or else it might well interfere with new technologies like (perhaps) wireless power transmission.

    1. Re:Sure, it's good today by pspahn · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Eventually? The sooner the better, if you ask me.

      I currently have several devices that are nothing more than paper weights now as they are no longer chargeable due to broken micro USB ports.

      It's not a terrible design for something like an external hard disk or other device that generally just sits there. On a device that is designed to be handled constantly, however, it falls flat on its face. The connection is simply too fragile.

      If the EU really wants to reduce waste, they would mandate a connector that didn't break so easily, thus bricking the device. This is less of a problem nowadays with laptops, but they too have suffered this problem long enough that at this point the only reason you would keep releasing devices with fragile power connectors is that you are engineering obsolescence.

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      Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
    2. Re:Sure, it's good today by msauve · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Huh? There was Firewire/30 pin, then there was USB/30 pin, then there's the shuffle "charge using the headphone jack," then the Lightning charging cable.

      Beyond charging, Apple's changed the other interfaces, too. Try to find a recent audio device with iPod control support which works with any iPod prior to 5G ones (and even those are iffy). "Made for iPod" means nothing, because Apple does frequently change their interfaces.

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      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    3. Re:Sure, it's good today by pspahn · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I must have been holding it wrong, right?!?!

      Let's look at the most recent device, a Samsung Galaxy Player 5. That one stopped working properly one day when I had unplugged it from the charging cord (like I would do each morning) only to find that the little wafer of plastic that sits in the middle of the female port came out of the device.

      Other USB connectors (of various sizes) I have seen do the exact same thing over the years across all sorts of devices. What did those devices have in common? They were handled constantly. On devices that do little but sit there, the connector works well.

      Kudos. You've managed to never break one in your life. This doesn't change the fact that other people will use these devices in a manner much less "sterile" than yours. Being a clutz has nothing to do with it, because, well, I'm not a clutz. I will admit, though, that occupational hazards probably contributed the majority of wear and tear on my devices.

      In the end, a micro USB connector (and other USB connectors to an extent) is terribly fragile and no matter if it breaks because you gave your phone to a baby while it was plugged in or if it breaks because of normal wear and tear, the end result is the same, electronic waste. If the goal of the EU is to reduce this waste, choosing micro USB is directly in conflict with that goal.

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      Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
    4. Re:Sure, it's good today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I must have been holding it wrong, right?!?!

      Or something, yes. I work in IT and support includes the phones (smart and dumb). I have never, ever seen someone break a microUSB connector. These are people that drop phones in coffee and in the toilet, who leave them on top of vehicles and who run them over with their cars. They are one of the more durable connectors I have ever seen, especially for their size. The fact that you manage to break multiples of them speaks way more about your own ineptitude than it does the plug design.

  2. Re:Don't worry by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Designing the phone to break before the connector has no advantages.

    It does if you sell phones.

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    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  3. Re:Vote with your wallet by icebike · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No need to legislate this.

    Wrong.

    You need only look at power outlets across europe to see what happens when you don't legislate standards.

    When an otherwise popular device foists yet another cable requirement on the market, that, in most cases will over-ride users
    resistance to having a new cable. All you have to do is LOOK at all the Apple fanbois tossing out their 30pin connector,
    (which we were assured by Apple was the best thing ever) and substituting the new Lightning cable, which is also now the best thing ever).

    In the mean time, the rational for doing ANYTHING thru the cable besides charging is virtually non-existent.

    A world standard almost exists for phone charging. There is really only ONE holdout.
    Wired charging will eventually be supplanted by wireless charging, and you will need standards there as well.

    Standardization is ALWAYS something that needs legislation. Always.

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