The European Commission and ten (10) of the world’s top cell phone manufacturers that service European markets have agreed to design cell phones with one universal charger design. European Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen is proud this agreement was reached without the need for legislation and expects the agreement to reduce the amount of electronic waste generated by cell phone consumers.

Historically, very few cell phone chargers were interchangeable with other phones. Consumers had problems with forgetting to take their charger with them on a trip and had to purchase another, or would simply have to throw an older charger away when a new phone was purchased. Some consumers have trouble losing their cell phone chargers.

Cell phone manufacturers also benefit by spending less on the development and manufacture of various charging systems. Standardization has been a great benefit in other industries such as computer peripherals, building materials and many automotive products. In most other industries, standardization was only accomplished by introducing legislation and forcing the various affected companies into compliance. This agreement is especially exciting because it was reached without the need for legislation.

The cell phone companies operating in Europe that have voluntarily agreed to this universal design are:

• Apple
• LG
• Motorola
• NEC
• Nokia
• Qualcomm
• Research in Motion (RIM)
• Samsung
• Sony Ericsson
• Texas Instruments

The new European standard cell phone charger will use a micro-USB connection that can charge from a standard outlet or from the USB port of most computers using a readily available cable. The change will be effective in 2010. Engineers for the new chargers claim these units will use half (1/2) as much energy on stand-by as the existing models.

There are currently about 400 million cell phones in use in Europe with 185 million new ones purchased each year. For the most part, that means about 185 million old cell phone chargers with nothing to do except go to the landfill.

Here’s the rub. The new universal charging system will only be for data-enabled smart phones, NOT all cell phones as the announcement would at first seem to imply. The Commission explains that as older cell phones are retired, most users will upgrade to smart phones with the universal charger capability. This transition is expected to take about three to four (3-4) years.

This is a great idea that should extend to ALL cell phones as soon as possible. What about the US market?