Micro-USB Slated to Become the 'Universal' Cell Phone Charging Standard

Posted 02/17/2009 at 5:18pm | by Mark Edward Soper

4

Comments

Print

Sick and tired of trying to find the right charger for your cell phone? Whether you're shopping for a new charger or trying to figure out which of the chargers in your desk drawer matches your phone, the industry's current lack of standards could make you just a little bit crazy - especially when you're staring at a blinking battery level display and you're expecting a very important call.

Thankfully, there's good news - if you can wait a few years. Today, GSMA (the mobile phone trade association) announced an agreement between virtually all of the world's major cell phone makers to stop the insanity and adopt a common charging connector standard: Micro-USB. The announcement, appropriately enough, was made at the 2009 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, CNet's 3GSM World blog reports.

By 2012, vendors such as LG, Motorola (which already uses Micro-USB for some phones), Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson will dump the current variety of charging connectors and switch to Micro-USB. The new generation of chargers will use less electricity, and there will be fewer chargers needed because of the standardization. Unless you're an iPhone user, that is. Apple's sticking with its iPod-type charger - which is great as long as you have a docking station that works with the iPhone (not all of them do).

Did GSMA make the right move with Micro-USB? Or, do you think a different connector's best for cell phone charging? Hit Comment and give your fellow readers a charge.