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I have a problem that most people have, but mine might be a tad worse since I have some many freaking devices. Power cords, chargers, sync cables… All different, big mess. I made a rant back in 2006 about manufacturers needing to label their power cords. Making a standard charger would make that problem go away too. A year latter, Radimus posted a call to manufacturers asking for standard usb charging for all devices. This isn’t a new issue and I am glad to see these folks banding together in an attempt to make it happen.

The GSMA dropped this Press Release yesterday…

The GSMA and 17 leading mobile operators and manufacturers today announced that they are committed to implementing a cross-industry standard for a universal charger for new mobile phones. The aim of the initiative, led by the GSMA, is to ensure that the mobile industry adopts a common format for mobile phone charger connections and energy-efficient chargers resulting in an estimated 50 per cent reduction in standby energy consumption, the potential elimination of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers and the enhancement of the customer experience by simplifying the charging of mobile phones.

The group has set an ambitious target that by 2012 a universal charging solution (UCS) will be widely available in the market worldwide and will use Micro-USB as the common universal charging interface. The group agreed that by the 1^st January 2012, the majority of all new mobile phone models available will support a universal charging connector and the majority of chargers shipped will meet the high efficiency targets set out by the OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Platform), the industry body who developed the technical requirements behind UCS.

I would love to see this happen much sooner, but at least it’s a start. Go Go GSMA.

Chris Leckness (3527 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Chris Leckness is the Owner/Administrator of Mobilitysite. He is a Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices and a member of the exclusive focus group, Mobius. Chris runs a Mobilitysite, GotZune, and a few other smaller sites and blogs. His personal blog is chris.leckness.com.