Charger behind European integration will help handset manufacturers to reduce costs

 To convince mobile phone makers a unified charger it is not easy, and good in the end they are still very thoroughly done.

text | CBN journalist Zhang Jing

Europeans will never worry about left her phone charger, and in the office who casually grabbed the charger can be for their own use, and do not control each other and their own mobile phone brand is not consistent.

European Commission on February 8, 2011 in Brussels announced that the European mobile phone charger will be a unified standard, which uses micro-USB interface to the phone charger. Micro-USB is to support both charging and data transfer capabilities of the new USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. The unified standard by the European Commission and the European Electronics Standardization Institute co-sponsored communications technology. It is not only a unified mobile interface, the mobile phone safety, electromagnetic radiation, it is also made uniform requirements.

The universal charger is expected to be available in the EU during the first half of this year and mass production, on average two years as consumers replace a cell phone, new cell phone charger dominated the market may take two years.

universal charger for the implementation of the EU this can be said to spare no effort. December 2010 the EU has published specific technical details. 14 major mobile phone manufacturers including Apple, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Blackberry have said they would comply with the agreement.

million in the past that charger, two charger - the charger from the power and data lines connecting devices composed of a unified power connection, the data line is not uniform - than the phone and this unity charger interface, more thorough and environmentally friendly practices. Global System for Mobile Communications Commission, according to data provided, the new charger will be able to reduce by half the energy loss.

the EU decided to do this, complaints from consumers: most cell phone chargers are thrown away, resulting in unnecessary costs and waste. In the EU, the current total of more than 30 phone chargers in the circulation, and if the implementation of this agreement, will be able to by 5.1 million tons of electronic waste, can be reduced 13.6 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

top 10.com leading European mobile site editor Jonathan Leggett said the move saying for a long time, but thank God, finally came.

the European Commission responsible for corporate affairs, Ambassador Antonio Tajani N think this is a win-win situation. But the big manufacturers, operators and several major trade associations started not think so. Make them sign the agreement on paper, only the green is not enough, have to let them see the benefits. While mobile phone manufacturers often had the name of environmental protection under the banner to launch products such as Nokia had launched the N79 mobile phone environment, the package is not equipped with factory charger, which is to encourage the use of the old charger.

They fear that if the charger to give up their past standards, would reduce consumer dependence on their brand, they are easy to choose the opponent's machine.

but in the end, a unified standard charger helps mobile phone manufacturers to reduce costs. Production of most of the BlackBerry and HTC mobile phones, and Nokia mobile phones as part of an earlier accepted this charger. But still some hard bone, such as smart phones of the most sought after Apple.

Apple has a large accessories business, has been supporting Apple has its own charger, Dock Connector, used to connect the iPhone and other iPod devices. The company will be outsourced to the standard accessories manufacturers, have to move a lot of accessories that move the interests of producers, because they must also will meet this standard.

Therefore, in the February 2009 agreement, Apple does not list the manufacturer. Until now, Apple joined the camp, though, but it is the micro-USB charger to join their ranks, or just use the standard micro-USB charger, is not yet clear. Whether Apple plans to add a fifth-generation iPhone, additional ports, or Micro-USB connector to replace the current base, is also unclear. If Apple made a change in Europe, may not forget the North America. In this way, charging Apple a few years and the data interface will be changed.

Sony Ericsson is already adhere to another with their own charger, one of the standard, and now it has also been persuaded that it will benefit themselves, as this will help it reduce a lot of packaging and logistics costs. Of course, the commitment to reduce carbon emissions is one of the causes.

to reach this agreement, GSM Association (GSMA) credit. This is a global trade association representing the world's 218 countries and regions, 750 GSM mobile phone operators, mobile phone users around the world covering 86% or more.

as early as February 2009, when, GSMA said it has reached an agreement and handset manufacturers. U.S. wireless communications and Internet Association in April 2009 also decided to support the agreement. GSMA time to set up a goal, that is to 2012, charging uniform worldwide standards will be universal. January 1, 2012, before most of the new phones will support the new unified charger, and the new charger will be produced to achieve the uniform standard.

GSMA's CEO Rob Conway said,

Europe there are about 400 million cell phones in use, there are around 185 million handsets sold. And this protocol is primarily for high data intensive mobile phones, including high-end feature phones and smart phones. The mobile phone industry is the fastest growing part. New phones produced in 2010 more than half were classified as such.

As for the Europeans want to promote this ambition around the world can be achieved, governments will have to see the support.

China also had a similar attempt. June 2007, China has promulgated a national standard mobile phone charger. But China provides Provisions of the EU mobile phone charger and cell phone charger, the interface is part of a unified force with Micro-USB standard and Chinese national standards only require that the phone charger and cell phone charging cable separation, the power plug will need to be unified, not mandatory for mobile terminal charging interface standard. That is, each model produced in China after the mobile phone charger, although not with, but must be equipped with a personalized data lines.

this is inconvenient. And the nature of this standard is recommended, most foreign handset manufacturers ignore this request, such as Nokia and Motorola. Currently on the market, only a few domestic brands can use generic mobile phone charger, and many foreign brands can not use the phone.

But now something has changed. China to market a uniform standard, which for three to four years and strive to promote to the world of the EU, it should not be difficult. IPhone and Android phones to see the popular level in China will know.