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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."

9 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.

      --
      Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
    2. 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.

      --
      Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
    3. Re:Sure, it's good today by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Interesting

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

      Well let's put it this way. MicroUSB connectors were designed specifically so that the plug was sacrificial. I use them a lot for hobby electronics, and my phones I use at work for convenient usb storage. I would on average plug them in 10+ times per day. I have had a lot of the cables fail, like they are supposed to, but I've never seen a device itself fail.

      Anyway this is all beside the point. I'll open the floor back to you to tell us what alternative plug you can suggest. Only criteria is that it has a current carrying capacity higher than 1A, is capable of supporting high speed data transfer, can be easily centred and inserted without looking and is no more than 3mm high.

      By the way I assume you took the device to get repaired right? I mean surely you didn't throw it out or replace it because a $0.60 component (in single quantities), which any competent soldering iron user could replace, broke right?

      If you didn't then shame on you.

  2. That's odd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought there was an international law against governing bodies making common sense decisions?
    Someone is going to receive a very sternly written letter.

  3. You must know a lot of people by dutchwhizzman · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are millions of people that have iPhones, none of them are your friends? This whole "must be chargeable with micro USB" was already mandatory in the EU, they are just changing the regulations so you don't need an adapter like the iPhone currently requires. They had to, because evidently vendors weren't having it and found ways around it, so yes, there really is a need to legislate this.

    --
    I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
  4. Re:Don't worry by _xeno_ · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not to mention the thing where the lightning cable apparently has a chip in the cable itself to verify itself with the phone. Turning the "cheap and easily replaceable" bit into "an unnecessary expensive and wasteful thing."

    The lightning cable and connector should die, and Apple should be forced to use micro USB just like everyone else.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
  5. 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.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  6. Making the de-facto standard mandatory. by Animats · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is just making mandatory the Common External Power Supply EU standard. That's been a voluntary standard since 2009, and most cell phone vendors in Europe have been on board for years. It's simple enough - phones use a MicroUSB B connector, and chargers use a USB-A connector if they have a connector at the charger end.

    China standardized on MicroUSB-B back in 2007. The GSM consortium standardized on MicroUSB-B in 2009.