Several major mobile phone manufacturers have agreed to back the European Union plan for a common charger for all mobile phones by next year. The agreement signed by phone majors like Nokia, Siemens, Research in Motion, Sony Ericsson and Samsung means that future mobile phone across a variety of brands and models will all share the same charger port ? micro-USB.
While the agreement currently holds only for Europe, EU industry commissioner, Guenter Verheugen has expressed hopes that other countries will follow the lead. The move is significant for India, world?s second largest telecom market. India is estimated to have 450 million telecom users and mobile phone operators are adding 8 to 10 million subscribers every month.
These chargers will be useful only for data-enabled phones, which can do more than SMS and typically surf Internet and view emails. About 139 million smartphones were sold in 2008, representing a 13.9% growth compared with a 6% growth in total mobile device sales, according to research firm Gartner.
While India?s smartphone population is not relatively small, it is seen to be a high-growth segment. In fact, Indian mobile service providers expect data services, growing at about 8-10% currently, to grow much faster as 3-G services are launched next year.
The Commission hopes that as people discard their old handsets, within three to four years all data-enabled phones in Europe will be using standardised chargers. Advantages are not limited to convenience but there is a significant environmental advantage of resorting to a common charger. The move is expected to cut down production of chargers as users will not need a new charger every time they upgrade their phone. Subscribers with several phones can also use a single charger for all their phones. This will help manufacturers cut down on materials required to manufacture chargers and also help reduced e-waste generated by discarding old and unusable chargers. India is estimated to generate about 20-25 million tonne of e-waste every year, according to department of industrial and scientific research.
The movement, originally spearheaded by the Group Special Mobile Association has now found support from several manufacturers including Apple, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, LG , NEC, Qualcomm, Research In Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments.