Apple, others agree to Micro-USB standard in Europe for mobile devices
According to Reuters, Apple and many other phone companies have agreed to use the micro-USB standard for phone chargers in the EU.
Top mobile telephone suppliers have agreed to back an EU-wide harmonization of phone chargers, the European Commission said on Monday, hailing the pact as good news for consumers and the environment.
"People will not have to throw away their charger whenever they buy a new phone," said EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen, estimating that unwanted phone accessories accounted for thousands of tons of waste in Europe each year.
The other companies named by Reuters include:
Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments.
Technically, the iPhone is currently (har!) charged and synced by USB so making an adapter that works for micro USB is just the changing the shape of the connector. A free adapter could also be included with the iPhone to clear the requirements.
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Comments (38)
But if they remove the 30-pinconnector what will we do with all the accessory we have for the 30-pinconnector?
No one mentioned removing the 30-pinconnector.
"A free adapter could also be included with the iPhone to clear the requirements"
And where do you plug the micro-USB adapter on iPhone?? This is the question, and not putting USB connector on the charger!!
you just use the then free (to comply) adapter 30pine -- usb-micro.
easy.
are you some sort of fucking idiot?
instead of usb on the other end of the current dock cable, they would put a micro usb jack.
that way, you would just take your nokia/sony/whatever phone charger and plug it into the usb jack on the cable.
Progress - that is the cost at time. You should be thankful for when you lose the charger or cable you can get one for 1/10th what you would pay from Apple. That is a price I think I can deal with...
getting cheap ipod cables isnt really a problem...
http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1246288162/ref=sr_st?keywords=ipod+dock+cabl...
You can get ipod cables for $0.01 plus shipping on amazon.
I hope, and should think that they can keep the 30 pin connector and just have an adaptor, so any micro usb charger will plug into the adaptor which will plug in to the 30 pin connector.
This is one of the BEST ideas for ANY portable device - be it phone or MP3 player. Why not do that in the United States? This would be a SUPER GREAT IDEA to save on e-waste and proprietary chargers and interface cables at man times the price they SHOULD be is there were a standard...
Wow...a government ACTUALLY doing something well? No, it just cannot be! Hats off to the EU.
D
Haha, a bit over-excited, but I agree nonetheless
I'm from Germany (is in the EU) and I think its great, that we only will need one adapter. I'm pretty sure, that in the future this will happen all around the word too.
I'm from Germany (is in the EU) and I think its great, that we only will need one adapter. I'm pretty sure, that in the future this will happen all around the word too.
I'm from Germany (is in the EU) and I think its great, that we only will need one adapter. I'm pretty sure, that in the future this will happen all around the word too.
I'm from Germany (is in the EU) and I think its great, that we only will need one adapter. I'm pretty sure, that in the future this will happen all around the word too.
Where are you from - again? I missed that...
but it wasn't sent when i looked and i tried it again and again^^
I was only kidding -nothing personal meant, this is the Internet and even if I knew you I would have made the same sarcastic comment - so I guess you are part of my posse - such as it is!
D
"[...] so making an adapter that works for micro USB is just the changing the shape of the connector."
This is not true. The whole point of having an universal charger is that is has an universal connection that plugs into the phone. Not into the wall... That end of the connection already is universal. Cause it plugs into your wall outlet.
So instead of (or next to) the dock connecter Apple is gonna include a Micro-USB connection the next generation iPhones.
unless they can do everything they currently do with the 30-pin connector
I dont understand why apple agreed on this.... Its a really great idea by EU to have universal charger in which you could connect any cell phone/mobile device but I really dont understand why apple did this... they will have to include micro-usb on the iphone next to 30-pin dock connector or they will have to ship 30-pin to micro USB adaptor with every iPhone in european union...
do you think they will only do this in the EU? Every new IPhone all around the world will have this.
How is that any different from every other European mobile manufacturer that likewise does not currently use micro-usb?
Everyone that has a agreed has to get on board. Thats what "agreeing" means.
The PROBLEM, is of course, that this agreement will force manufacturers who DO NOT agree to conform to this standard...great for the user you may say, but that is not ALL important. Choice and freedom is important. Not user convenience. This is the overarching problem with the philosophy of the EU and you'll now see it played out in something as trivial as mobile chargers.
a female micro-usb port on the other end of the dock cable instead of the male full-size usb port they currently use will do the trick.
I hope this does happen, how many of us have older cell phones with at least 2 chargers. it would have been cheaper for me and less e-waste. I'm all for it, besides the hug a tree kiss a whale part ... it saves me $ or € or whatever ;-).
remember this is just for charging so I'll bet as others say it is an adapter, but in the future, is there a reason that the 30 pin couldn't be done away with?
yes, why do you think a thirty pin connector can be replaced with a 4 pin micro usb connection. The micro usb connection only supports one way charging and semi one way transfer. The dock connector has pins for stereo audio in/out, composite video out, component video out, svideo out, power in/out, device interface (play, fast forward, etc), firewire in, and usb in
The Charging and Transfer part.... You do know that it's a USB stik in the other end of you cable, when you connect it to your computer right?
So at that part it's the same as now.
.
Device interface, it's an USB stik, you can still send commands over it, you just have to use a difference protocol.
And as an end user you wont notic any difference.
.
The analog output will be the problem.
on the audio side it's "easy" you can ether use the normal jack stik, or the better way, just add an USB soundcarn in the connector that you are using to plug in your iPod/iPhone to what ever you are. the USB sound card today is realy small, so it will not fill mutch in the cable.
.
Video out... Ya. there is the still a lot of TV's that are made with component in, so it can be used there.
But question is when they will drop that, and just go for HDMI in.
at that point you need an extra port, or an externel converter anyway.
.
So the only advance that the 30pin connector have over USB is the video out.
This is simple. They will simply include a small lego sized adapter. I doubt Apple will ever completely transfer over because of all the capabilities of the 30-pin.
The question is, what cables will be included? Will they have two (one for charging, one for data transfer) included in the packaging?
Apple is clearly hurt by this:
1. This new standard is for smartphones only, not regular phones. Apple is a technology leader in smartphones not playing in the regular phone market.
2. Apple's 30 pin is the #1 (and maybe only) established standard among mobile devices for connecting to 1000s of accessories. Apple will be forced to either give up 30 pin or be the only company on the market looking stupid and confusing customers with 2 ports on their phone while all other phones have just one port. Either way, it is forced to give micro USB a leg up in potentially becoming 30 pin's main competitor.
3. This announcement will confuse 3rd parties who were just now starting to develop a whole bunch of new accessories that would benefit from iPhone OS 3.0 connectivity. Apple will probably be forced to keep silent on this, in line with their company policies on not talking about future products.
All that Apple can hope for is that the other manufacturers will fail to grasp the chance and destroy Apple's accessory market by nurturing a common micro USB accessory market.
Nope. Like most smart phone providers, Apple will just throw a 5¢ USB to mini-USB adaptor in the box. They've done it before - they used to throw a full-sized FW connector to mini-FW connector in some 2G iPod boxes.
As mentioned in the article, an included adaptor satisfies the regulations.
seriously, are you people idiots? think this through. a USB to mini-usb adaptor? sheesh. that's not the input. what they are saying (and all you need to do is look at the damn picture in this article) is that phones will need to have a mini-usb female to accept a mini-usb male that is attached to a cord that plugs into the wall.
i used to think posters on these forums were smart