I’m really happy to hear this news. Whilst the body is saying that it’s not compulsory for manufacturers to sign up to this system, I really hope that all mobile phone manufacturers will. Sony Ericsson have announced they’ll launch the universal charger in the first half of 2010.
I remember when Nokia launched their new phone charger – suddenly I had a phone for which the countless old chargers I had were redundant. It really seems incredibly pointless. In fact, I think I ended up buying a new charger for the first time just because I had left my only charger at home.
With the new universal charger there is a situation where, if widely adopted, you won’t have to worry about visiting a friend and not being able to charge your phone, buying a new phone won’t write off your old chargers, and in theory we’ll see a lot less electronic waste.
Industry body the GSMA says that 51,000 tonnes of redundant chargers are generated each year.
Currently most chargers are product or brand specific, so people tend to change them when they upgrade to a new phone.
However, the new energy-efficient chargers can be kept for much longer.
The GSMA also estimates that they will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 13.6m tonnes.
via BBC NEWS – Universal phone charger approved.
I just hope that the new charger, with its energy efficiency, will not actually draw power when it’s plugged in with no phone attached – something that irks me about current chargers.
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