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Last Updated: Jun 30, 2009 - 8:20:45 AM |
The frantic hunt for the right cell-phone charger will soon be a thing
of the past -- in Europe at least -- as major manufacturers on Monday
agreed to introduce a universal adaptor within six months.
Industry leaders, including Apple, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony
Ericsson, have struck a deal with the European Union to introduce the
one-size-fits-all charger by January 1, 2010, offering a solution to
one of modern life's chief frustrations.
Most cell phones currently rely on different chargers, causing
mountains of waste electronic. > Most cell phones currently rely on
different chargers, causing mountains of waste electronic parts
As the number of cell phones has exploded over the past few years, so
have the number of chargers -- generating mountains of waste technology
as users change or upgrade handsets.
Now the cell phone industry has agreed to standardize its chargers,
making all handsets compatible with a micro-USB plug already standard
on handsets such BlackBerrys.
Last year an estimated 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide,
according to University of Southern Queensland data reported by
industry umbrella group GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association),
generating up to 82,000 tonnes of chargers.
With concerns over the level of waste generated by redundant or
outmoded chargers, European legislators had, prior to Monday's
agreement, considered forcing manufacturers to adopt universal
technology.
"I am very pleased that industry has found an agreement which will make
life much simpler for consumers," Gunter Verheugen, vice-president of
the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, said in a statement.
"This also means considerably less electronic waste, because people
will no longer have to throw away chargers when buying new phones."
With the Europe-wide agreement in place, the rest of the world is
unlikely to lag behind.
GSMA, which represents 750 of the world's cell-phone operators, has
already pledged a January 2012 deadline for introducing a universal
charger.
Source:Ocnus.net 2009
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