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Switzerland Moves Toward a Universal Phone Charger Standard (vice.com)
Press2ToContinue writes: Apple's Lightning cable cartel be damned: Switzerland is moving forward with a plan for a single, universal phone charger across the country, standardizing phone chargers across the board. While the exact standard hasn't been mentioned yet, it wouldn't be hard to guess the standard: Micro USB, used across phone platforms, most especially Android, which has a gigantic chunk of the cell phone market worldwide.
The likely loser? Apple, which has relied on proprietary chargers since introducing the iPhone in 2007. While many companies have tried releasing generic cables, Apple often relies on DRM software to ensure that it's an Apple certified cable, charging $19 a piece for the Lightning charger used by the iPhone 5 and 6 and similar models.
What do you think -- are government-mandated standards for chargers a good idea? Despite the success of the standard household 3-prong electrical plug, doesn't this hamper progress? China seems to have done most of the work on the wall-circuit side of the equation,several years ago. But as to the "standard" 3-prong plug, any particular plug type is only as universal as the sockets and voltages they supply.
The likely loser? Apple, which has relied on proprietary chargers since introducing the iPhone in 2007. While many companies have tried releasing generic cables, Apple often relies on DRM software to ensure that it's an Apple certified cable, charging $19 a piece for the Lightning charger used by the iPhone 5 and 6 and similar models.
What do you think -- are government-mandated standards for chargers a good idea? Despite the success of the standard household 3-prong electrical plug, doesn't this hamper progress? China seems to have done most of the work on the wall-circuit side of the equation,several years ago. But as to the "standard" 3-prong plug, any particular plug type is only as universal as the sockets and voltages they supply.
Switzerland movies nothing, our Government just tries to suck up to the EU wherever they can and copy their laws... and, it just mandates a USB-Plug *on the charger*, so even for the crap from Cuppertino it does not change anything...
They are not:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Government mandated standards may or may not be a good idea, but they are certainly not "the basis of a free market" because they represent an intervention by government in the forces of supply and demand.
Sometimes they are. But proprietary lock-in is compatible with a free market.
There is no Lightning Charger, the charger has a normal USB connection. There is a Lightning cable, however. And to be honest I love it that for once I don't have to think which side goes up (or sideways). If this standard is any good it will use the new USB Type C standard.
FWIW I rather pay a "premium" on a cable that will not fry my hardware and might burn my house down.
Perl Programmer for hire
The government must be involved to prevent the formation of monopolies or cartels that remove the "free" from free market.
... government standardization would be a good thing since the vendors obviously aren't going to do it themselves. Proprietary connectors mostly help the vendors with lock-in due to patents which only helps to pad the balance sheets of those vendors.
The digital industry is filled with almost monopolies. Microsoft is almost monopolist for the desktop (and its office suite is almost monopolist was well), intel is almost monopolist for the desktop CPU market. Google is almost monopolist for internet search. If these companies now use their monopoly to promote only a part of the market they control, its an abuse of their monopoly.
Its hard if a company wants to improve a product, yes. But here the thought of a free market is more important than wanting to improve cabled charger technology.
Imagine if you bought a house with apple IOT, and apple sells thousands of these houses, and after they sold them, they declare that only devices will work with the house's power grid that are certified by apple. This will be their next money printing machine. Modifying the house would be forbidden because of the strong IP laws, and patents apple has on the house. Your only option would be to tear down. Would you want this? And what is if only such houses are on the market, if nobody can build a normal house anymore, without vendor lock in?
Government mandated standards may or may not be a good idea, but they are certainly not "the basis of a free market" because they represent an intervention by government in the forces of supply and demand.
This is nonsense. The parent was right.
The underlying supply, mor important, demand, does not change, just because the suppliers need to meet a certain standard. And by all being forced to adhere to the same standard, a single supplier can not abuse his artificial monopoly.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
However, regulating the production seems to be just more practical than searching through all trash cans for illegal dumping of toxic waste.
The article claims that apple is going to lose. This is wrong: it will be the apple fan boys who will have to shell out for an overly expensive bit of wire. Still: probably a small fraction of what they have already paid in over priced kit.
Sigh... i'm still waiting for the U.S. to move to the metric system :|
Your statement may be true but still standards are not the basis of a free market.
USB-C is a way better connector - No schrodinger's cat problem where the ports direction isn't determined until you try it the first time, so it always takes 3 tries. Aupports higher power etc - just a way better standard than Micro B
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
Yes. However, there is no world government; so planetary adoption of standards is still hard.
the success of the standard household 3-prong electrical plug
Haha. Right. All the proposed regulation does is to make *one* end of the charger a standard. Good luck with the other end. There is no "standard household outlet"; countries can't even agree on what the voltage should be, or the AC frequency, never mind the number of, arrangement, size, and shape of prongs.
All monopolies are creations of governments. They don't exist in a free market.
The U.S. government has had to step in many times to break up monopolies. If all monopolies are created by governments then why would they break them up?
Maybe you can explain how the U.S. created the Bell System (aka Ma Bell) and Standard Oil monopolies and then why they would dismantle what they created.
Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
If the government imposes standards for chargers (or anything else), buyers and sellers are not free to engage in transactions without government interference; that makes the market a regulated market, not a free market. I'm sorry if you don't understand that, but your analysis is, to use your own words, "nonsense".
Furthermore, government standards can very much affect supply and demand. For example, housing standards generally lower supply of housing. Standards also frequently lower demand by making products less attractive or more cumbersome to use.
If you consider a proprietary charger plug an "artificial monopoly", the term "monopoly" has lost all meaning.
A free market is a ...
That is ONE definition of a "free market", as a market free of government regulation. Another definition of a "free market" is a competitive market with negligible barriers to entry, and the inability of a single participant (either buyer or seller) to unilaterally set prices. In practice, these two definitions are opposites, since completely unregulated markets tend to be rigged.
Don't you remember all the different chargers? I love being able to use any micro USB charger with any phone or camera. No more digging around to find the proprietary charger that I may have labelled to identify the device that it works with. It may pay the individual companies to design their own proprietary chargers and still be better for the consumer for the government to insist on a single design standard. The "free market" isn't some wonder drug.
Apple is using the lightning connectors (and the associated data transfer standards) to lock customers in to only purchasing from Apple. Letting the USB committee standardize on Lightning would defeat the purpose