In this case, probably not. I’ve heard rumblings from various media sources lately that a great majority of cell phone manufacturers are going to begin producing phones that accept a universal charger. I’ll let you recover from your disbelief.
The plan is to have most, if not all cell phones using the micro-USB interface as the means to charge a cell phone by the year 2012. This will please two main groups: the tree-hugging environmentalists, and the scatterbrained travelers that lose chargers in luggage/hotels/airports, etc. (guilty).
The universal charger should decrease waste in landfills and lower the cost of replacement chargers. There will be little or no demand for new car chargers or wall chargers, since everyone will have one from a previous phone (ideally). I’m all for fewer chargers and cords laying everywhere, and I also happen to be strongly in favor of lower prices.
The plan also calls for chargers to be far more efficient in the actual charging process, using approximately 50% less electricity in the charging process. Combine that with the benefits of fewer chargers in landfills, and environmentalists everywhere will give extra big hugs to the nearest tree they can find. (I’m kidding, environmentalists are ok by me.)
There is one major producer that is missing from the list. Go figure, it’s Apple. It’s kind of hard to be mad at them when they continue to pump out cool products, but c’mon guys, it’s a charger. Fall in line. All the “cool” manufacturers are doin’ it.
Hooray for the cell phone industry. It’s a small step in the right direction. Maybe in a few years, ALL devices can have a universal charging interface. Maybe. (I know, it’s crazy talk. After all, it took the cell phone industry 20 years or so…)
You guys have any ideas to make the cell phone industry/ mobile device industry better? Comment away.
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March 7th, 2010 at 3:56 am
That is a outstanding way of seeing things, not thay hard for you to learn. Many thanks for spending time to write about your current musings.