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The US is Considering Universal Charger Standard for Consumer Electronics

TheLostSwede

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After the EU lawmakers agreed on making USB Type-C the charging interface standard for the union, it appears US senators are considering something similar. Although it's early days at this point, with just a letter penned by a few democratic senators to the Secretary of Commerce, the route to implementation is likely to be a lot longer. The reasoning is very similar to the one from the EU lawmakers, namely to reduce e-waste and make life easier for consumers. The letter states that "the average consumer owns approximately three mobile phone chargers, and around 40 percent of consumers report that, on at least one occasion, they "could not charge their mobile phone because available chargers were incompatible.""

It goes on to say that innovation should benefit consumers rather than come at their expense, especially as consumers end up with a collection of incompatible chargers and connectivity cables. In reality things are a bit more complex, as so often is the case, but there's really no reason why more standardised chargers can't finally become the norm, with the computer and mobile industries largely pushing for USB Type-C as the common connector, with some exceptions. The extra incentive by regulation should help speed things up, but the USB standard isn't as straightforward as the politicians seem to think, which could cause some consumer complaints during the transition period. However, certified USB PD compliant devices should make everyone's life simpler in the long term. Time will tell if the Secretary of Commerce agrees with the senators and there's obviously no guarantee that USB Type-C will be the chosen standard, regardless of how likely it is.



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Like Nike says: "Just do it"

like Larry the Cable Guy says: Get 'er done !

Like nOw, not 5, or 4, or 3, or 2 yrs from now, but TODAY !
 
Hope we don't end up with two competing standards, one for the EU market and one for the US market.
EU and US should chose ONE standard.
 
Arguing over charging standards is pork and utter waste of time.

Oh yeah these are parasites, that want studies done with lizards on treadmills.

Fuggin bastards/bitches
 
Low quality post by Easo
I absolutely trust this will drown in partisan politics.
 
Hope we don't end up with two competing standards, one for the EU market and one for the US market.
EU and US should chose ONE standard.

It's already choosen, it's USB-C, companies will not waste money on two different standards for different markets, it's settled. The US moving this to law or not is irrelevant, most devices already moved to USB-C and now that finally the EU made it official the remaining ones will follow.

Probably Apple will dump some dinaros on ye favorite congressmen and lo and behold, it's their connector that is mandatory in the U.S. Imagine the lulz!

It would be funny, and not the first time a much worse standard wins but it won't happen, even Apple already moved half their lineup to USB-C and a big portion of their users is able to recognize that lightning is nothing more than petty bullshit at this point. They also won't do a different iPhone just for the EU, they can either move the iPhone to USB-C or pursue the stupid "portless" dream (good luck with that lol)
 
Like nOw, not 5, or 4, or 3, or 2 yrs from now, but TODAY !
ok stop.. this is really pushing it, I mean we're talking about the US here. Name one thing the politicians havent treated like a Vogon?

Hope we don't end up with two competing standards, one for the EU market and one for the US market.
EU and US should chose ONE standard.
TBH, this is wishful thinking, its not like there a commitee consisting of both (or more) governments actually talknig to each other hashing out which standard the US will use, or should I say copy...

It's already choosen, it's USB-C, companies will not waste money on two different standards for different markets, it's settled. The US moving this to law or not is irrelevant, most devices already moved to USB-C and now that finally the EU made it official the remaining ones will follow.
This was discussed at length in a news thread, I still see it as Apple jumping ahead of the carrot.
 
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Replacing the the term "consumer" with "tax-cattle' in this article would make it more accurate. In a similar study, 40% of consumers that read this post were offended but they couldn't charge their phones to reply.
 
Nah, good things for the people don't happen in the US. If anything comes of this, some politicians might get iPhones with USB C and someone unrelated to any of this will get rich.
 
Waste of time. The industry's already standardizing on C, so this would amount to, "Hey, do the thing you're currently doing, but now under legal mandate."
 
Low quality post by TheUn4seen
If USA is so great why did someone create USB?
The thing about USA is that's a country run by corporations which buy politicians like Magic cards. I'm fairly sure this announcement is merely a "Hey corpos, we need money, get those lobbying bucks rolling our way now" type of move.
Not that EU is different, mind you. They just hide their corruption behind a thick and opaque wall of incompetence.
 
I would be happy with 1 standard for connecting LEDs. It seems like every fan, motherboard, case ect has a different incompatible connector. Quite annoying for builders.
 
I would be happy with 1 standard for connecting LEDs. It seems like every fan, motherboard, case ect has a different incompatible connector. Quite annoying for builders.

They are standard, there's just 2 or 3 different ones (analogue vs digital vs 12V vs 5V).

There is - it's called anode and kathode.

ahah nice one
 
Arguing over charging standards is pork and utter waste of time.
Yeah, how could it possibly benefit the consumer to have a single charging standard? /s

Replacing the the term "consumer" with "tax-cattle' in this article would make it more accurate. In a similar study, 40% of consumers that read this post were offended but they couldn't charge their phones to reply.
Everyone on earth who makes above the poverty line is basically tax cattle my dude.

Waste of time. The industry's already standardizing on C, so this would amount to, "Hey, do the thing you're currently doing, but now under legal mandate."
They are standardizing on C because of "waste of times" like this.
 
Capitalism. You're doing it wrong. The market will (and pretty much has already) decide. There are dozens of purchases I haven't made the past few years because something was still micro-USB or didn't support USB-PD. USB-C has been rewarded by being purchased.. When something better comes along, so will it.
 
UK decided to not opt in to this, it be funny if US and EU both do it, as UK would benefit from it but not because of our lawmakers but then because it wouldnt be economical to keep old model just for UK.
 
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UK decided to not opt in to this, it be funny if US and EU both do it, as UK would benefit from it but not because of our lawmakers but then because it wouldnt be economical to keep old model just for UK.
Ah yes, forgot to mention that.
 
UK decided to not opt in to this, it be funny if US and EU both do it, as UK would benefit from it but not because of our lawmakers but then because it wouldnt be economical to keep old model just for UK.

If they can put a steering wheel on the right, I'm sure they can manage something here, besides markets generally adopt popular standards regardless.
 
UK decided to not opt in to this, it be funny if US and EU both do it, as UK would benefit from it but not because of our lawmakers but then because it wouldnt be economical to keep old model just for UK.
Hi,
It would only be funny if EU & US chose different standards :laugh:
 
Hi,
It would only be funny if EU & US chose different standards :laugh:
I never thought of that happening, that would be madness but also not too surprising I suppose.
 
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