Written by Peter Murphy on Tuesday, June 30, 2009

A Standard for Charging your Phone!


HDP-TC-0102-1 The variety, and might I make up a word, weird-ocity,  of proprietary connectors for individual phones to charge from, has never made any sense. It has always seemed to be a bit of a “make it up as you go along” sort of randomness. Maybe dependent on designers, or device manufacturers, thinking they could make users retain a branded device because the proprietary charger would be re-usable with latter devices. Although that sort of continuity hasn’t evolved. In that, I’m looking at two Samsung phones, that have different connectors. My Moto Razr had a mini usb connector, my Tilt has a Mini usb connector, my old Nokia had one of those funky proprietary connectors. iPhone has a proprietary connection as does the iPod. It doesn’t make sense,why can’t we all just get along.

Somewhere, in a land far, far away, someone hit upon the idea that it would be sensible to use one connection to charge all phones. Thus relieving the frustration of finding the right cable for your phone on any particular day, and reducing the cost of a phone, by adding a standard option to them all.

It seems like it has taken a long time for a decision to be made, but pretty much all of the major phone manufacturers have agreed, with the glaring exception of HTC and HP.

microusb-standard-chargerThis is something that really has to happen, and not only from a user point of view. Standardising of the sync/charge connection, inevitably reduces the cost of device manufacture. One thing that strikes me here, if you make devices, you will not have to package a charger with every new device, therefore saving money. Which hopefully means the device cost up front, is reduced. For the User, a little bit of reduced redundancy, less chargers to throw away/ recycle.

A new EU norm should be created soon, requiring next-gen mobile phones to use a universal Micro USB socket. This would eliminate “unwanted phone accessories”, allowing users to charge phones made by different manufacturers with the same charger.

Hope this rolls out sooner rather than later!

microUSB Phone Charger Standard Agreed Upon

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dgoldring
Jun 30, 2009

Good points . I actually see two problems here. One is, as you mentioned, proprietary adaptors, which are a huge pet peeve of mine as well. The other is the crappy practice of including a charger or AC adaptor that does not have the device name anywhere on it. So, you end up with a bunch of AC adaptors and a bunch of devices and no idea which ones go together.

Oh and you may want to take another look at HTC…Until now, mini-USB has been the accepted norm for the universal charger, and HTC has utilized this standard for several years (at least).


Peter Murphy
Jun 30, 2009

I actually write all that and did not say that the standard is Micro USB! why retain the same format, gotta make some money out of the change! It’s in the link


John D. Sheridan
Jun 30, 2009

Look again at some of HTC’s devices. That’s not a standard miniUSB jack in the phone, it just happens to accept a miniUSB plug for charging. My HTC Hermes won’t charge from a Motorola charger, and my RAZR, which is a standard miniUSB, won’t charge from the HTC charger. It’s funny though, they both charge from a standard miniUSB plugged into a PC.


breley
Jun 30, 2009

This would be a very welcome development.

I wonder though, as newer USB standards and such are developed and implemented, if connector form-factor consensus can be maintained, especially if competitive “first to market” mindsets come into play. It would be interesting to sit down with some of the engineers from some of the OEMs and ask why they felt the need to develop proprietary forms, that is, what particular feature advantages (if any) Company A’s connector has over Company B’s.


dgoldring
Jun 30, 2009

@ Breley, i am pretty sure the only real reason for most proprietary connections is to control the accessory market. Though I suspect some are designed to charge faster or sync faster, I think money is the biggest driving factor.

@ John, I have used my generic mini-USB on every HTC device I have owned and never had a problem.

Doug


John D. Sheridan
Jun 30, 2009

@Doug

The problem crossing HTC/Motorola is the “fault” of Motorola. Both chargers are miniUSB, but the Motorola charger isn’t exactly generic apparently. I seem to recall the ability of the RAZR to change charging rates depending on whether it detects a charger or a PC. The HTC’s might be generic but the RAZR doesn’t like it. My point is that even a standard connector won’t guarantee universal compatability if the chargers and phones have little “tweaks” to them so that they only work with specific devices.

I have to slightly retract about the standard USB cable connected to a PC. The RAZR would not charge with the first cable I got, a standard generic cable from Radio Shack supposedly designed for digital cameras. I have the Motorola cable that came with Phone Tools that I now use. The HTC seems to charge/sync with anything.


James
Jun 30, 2009

Manufacturers are allowed to continue using proprietary connectors so long as they include an adaptor for miniusb.

So we’ll end up with exactly what’s in that picture. Lots of adaptors.

That said, many adaptors and and one charger is better than the inverse.

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