EU unified mobile phone charger

The European Commission announced in Brussels, Belgium, on February 8, 2011 that Europe will harmonize mobile phone charger standards, ie mobile phone chargers that use a micro-USB interface. Micro-USB is a new USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface that supports both charging and data transfer functions. This unified standard was jointly proposed by the European Electronic Technology Standardization Committee and the European Institute of Communications Technology. It not only unified the mobile phone interface, but also made unified requirements on the safety and electromagnetic radiation of the mobile phone.

Europeans will never worry about forgetting to bring mobile phone chargers. They can use their chargers in the office to use them for their own purposes, regardless of whether the other mobile phone brand is the same as theirs.

In order to promote universal chargers, the EU has spared no effort. In December 2010, the European Union has announced specific technical details. The 14 major mobile phone manufacturers including Apple, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Blackberry all stated that they will comply with this agreement.

Compared with the past universal chargers and two-piece chargers, which consisted of a charger connected by a power connection device and a data cable, the power supply connection devices were unified, and the data lines were not unified. Compared to the unified mobile phone and charger interface More thorough and environmentally friendly. According to the data provided by the Global Mobile Communications Commission, the new charger will be able to reduce energy consumption by half.

The EU’s decision to do this stems from consumer complaints: Most mobile phone chargers are thrown away, causing unnecessary costs and waste. In the EU, there are currently more than 30 mobile phone chargers in circulation, and if this agreement can be implemented, it will reduce 51,000 tons of e-waste, and it will also reduce 13.6 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

But big manufacturers, large operators, and several industry associations may not think so at the beginning. To allow them to sign on the agreement paper, only environmental protection is not enough, they must let them see the benefits. Although mobile phone manufacturers often launched products under the banner of environmental protection. For example, Nokia had launched the N79 green mobile phone. The factory packaging is not equipped with a charger. This is to encourage the use of its old charger.

What they are worried about is that if they give up their past charger standards, they will reduce consumers’ reliance on their brands and they can easily choose their opponent’s machine.

Ultimately, however, unified charger standards help handset manufacturers reduce costs. Most mobile phones produced by Blackberry and HTC, as well as some of Nokia's mobile phones, have earlier accepted such chargers. But there are still some hard bones, such as the most sought after Apple Inc. in the smart phone field.

About 400 million mobile phones are in use in Europe, and about 185 million mobile phones are sold each year. This agreement is mainly applicable to high data-intensive mobile phones, including high-end ordinary mobile phones and smart phones. These mobile phones are the fastest growing parts of the mobile phone industry. More than half of the newly-produced mobile phones in 2010 were classified as such.

As for whether the Europeans hope to promote this ambition to the rest of the world, it will depend on the support of governments of all countries.