iPhone to support Micro-USB Charger in Europe

In February, at the 2009 Mobile World Congress, some of the world's leading handset makers came together in support of a Universal charger. This announcement received many accolades but one major phone company was missing, which was Apple.

Now with the recent deal between GSMA and European Union, which requires phone companies to support 'single charger 'in Europe, Apple has agreed to support the single charger requirement by the European Commission.

Apple is among the 10 companies that represent 90% of the European Mobile market. Other companies include big players such as Nokia, RIM, SamSung, Sony Ericsson etc. All of them have agreed to support a single Micro-USB connector, which will be used across all their phones in Europe.

This micro-USB based universal charger is expected to be implemented by 2012. This is a welcome news mainly for users who  use multiple mobile phones as they will not have to carry multiple chargers.

This move is also good for the environment as this will allow users to reuse their chargers and will avoid the wastage and will help reduce the carbon footprint.

The initial rejection from Apple was ironic, considering their publisized 'Apple and the Environment' message. There could be various reasons behind why Apple was not willing to join the 'Universal Charger' group earlier:

Reason 1:

Apple uses a 30-pin connector in the iPhone, and is already licensed their connector technology with the accessroy manufactorers. Apple extracts royalties from companies for allowing their accessories to interact with Apple's devices.

Companies such as Nokia, RIM, SamSung etc have been supporting micro-USB connectors in their products and hence, their support for this technology does not come as a surprise.

Reason 2:

The roaring success of Apple's iPhone and iPod might have given Apple enough reason not to follow the standards and a reason to stand out of the crowd.

Reason 3:

The cell-phone industry could not force this upon Apple. But with EU stepping in with the 'single charger' requirement it might have become difficult for Apple to ignore the call.

It is still not clear if Apple will completely switch to the micro-USB connector or come up with a micro-USB to 30-pin converter for its iPhones and iPods. Apple's approach towards this is yet unknown and will only become clear with the passage of time.

A universal charger is just one of those things that seems logical and with Europe pushing for standardization, it might just make others to follow suit.

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