Comments on: MicroUSB Becomes European Standard In 2010

By: Dr.

Dr. — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 04:08:04 +0000

Volunteering to set standards is one thing, and is fine. These were not government officials FORCING the companies to agree, they chose to do so without any punishments or repercussions if it ceases to be in their best interest down the line. As was mentioned above, someone may come up with a far superior charging / data connection solution down the road if allowed the freedom of enterprise to do so. However, if government regulation sets the standards for development, there will NEVER be any improvement over the current standard, because it won’t come from companies and private parties with financial incentives for making better products. Regulation of private enterprise is the reason the EU is NOT the model the US should follow. If Apple wants to adopt a new standard because they believe being compatible with other companies chargers or data cables is in *Apple’s* interest as a revenue generating endeavor, then I’m behind them 100%. If a US Senator decides that he doesn’t like Apple having so much market share (and let’s say the Senator bought big into Motorola stock), and he demands Apple changes its connectors, then we’re talking about a different scenario altogether.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:03:29 +0000

I don’t understand the comment about these companies being “in the EU”. I think only one and a half of this company list is EU.
Moto, Qualcomm, Apple are all US, RIM is Canada, NEC, Sony are Japan and LG is Korea. I think it is only the Chinese that are missing.

By: stevenp

stevenp — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:08:39 +0000

Jason, OK, here’s a first-person report. The mini-usb connector gave out on my Blackberry Pearl just before 2 years of use. It was never abused, but that 500-cycle average is remarkably close to my real-life experience. The rest of the phone was in beautiful shape but it was rendered useless because the charging and data connections could not be made. Rather than try to buy and solder in a new connector, I upgraded to a BB 8900 with a micro-usb connector. I’m much more comfortable with it. It is narrower and definitely sturdier. (Having a PhD in materials engineering, I can easily see why the micro-usb connector should have a much longer average lifetime.)

By: PJ

PJ — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:31:16 +0000

You neglected to mention that China mandated mini-USB cell phone chargers back in 2007. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Mobile_device_charger_standards . Still good news, though!

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:58:52 +0000

More cable standards…yawn. Give me wireless charging/data standards!

By: RM

RM — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:10:58 +0000

This is so long overdue.

I think (hope) that the U.S. will tag along by default. After all, if HTC or someone builds a phone around a slim microUSB power adapter for the European market, they’re certainly not going to easily change it to something else for the American market.

Anyway, mini/micro, I don’t really care. Mini is more prevalent at the moment, but micro can surpass it with an industry push.

And, as someone else said, I just love how I never feel far away from a power connector with the G1.

By: Jason D

Jason D — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:25:22 +0000

Ian, as a rule, wikipedia is a great resource for finding out what happened in episode 16 of “Lost” but as to more important issues it rates the same as “my best-friend’s, cousin’s, sister-in-law said…” If you want to use Wikipedia, I’d use the bibliography links to look at the source material for evidence.

By: John Thacker

John Thacker — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:59:05 +0000

This has already been the case with the majority of new phones in the last 18 months. Every new phone I’ve seen has been either miniUSB or microUSB. My phone I bought last year is microUSB.

It’s becoming an official standard because it was already an unofficial one. You can read articles from 2007 talking about this.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:47:28 +0000

Yeah, I agree, miniUSB is lousy, I have terrible connections and have to have my phone and cable just right to charge or data connect with my computer. microUSB is much sturdier. Also I imagine, even if the US doesn’t make microUSB STANDARD like in the EU, it probably won’t matter because the phone manufacturers who are entered in the agreement aren’t going to make the same model phones with different connectors if they don’t have to, so if they are already making it microUSB for EU, then we’ll probably get the same thing in the US even if it’s not “standard” here.

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:13:05 +0000

You say that

“… I actually prefer the MiniUSB. It just seems easier to connect and sturdier…”

Not so! As per Wikipedia:

“The newer Micro-USB receptacles are designed to allow up to 10,000 cycles of insertion and removal between the receptacle and plug, compared to 500 for the standard USB and Mini-USB receptacle.”

As it is, every time I plug in my G1 I cringe, knowing that another 1/500th of its life has gone…

Also, microUSB enables slimmer phones (which is why it was invented); surely a good thing.

By: Gigi

Gigi — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:02:11 +0000

Pick a standard and stick with it. I didn’t realize how important (and convenient) it is to have a mini-USB phone until my G1. I never fear running low on battery while away from home. Everyone has a mini-usb cable these days! That being said, if we change to using micro-usb as the standard, it would be great if it becomes as widespread as the mini-usb is now.

I love using devices that all can share the connector cables. I’m looking at your iPod! Get with the program.