Mobile phone users are tantalisingly close to the day when they can power up any phone with the same charger. But industry players gathered at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona still have some way to go. Three years ago, 17 manufacturers and operators agreed at this same conference to share the same standard for mobile phone chargers fitting into a micro-USB socket. The relatively modest goal, defined by the global industry's GSM Association, was that most mobile phones sold in 2012 should be compatible with the new universal charger. Despite European Union pressure on the industry to ensure all phones share the same type of charger and thus avoid hassle for users and vast amounts of unnecessary waste, results have been mixed. "It has been announced so many times and the customers are still waiting for it," sighed Flavio Cuchietti, one of the project's supervisors at the UN agency, the International Telecommunication Union. "It has been clearly aimed at smartphones, which account for about 25-30 per cent of the market in Europe. Then what about the other 70 per cent, and what about the Third World?" he asked. Read more: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10789074
