Gadget Manufacturers to be Required to Design SAME Charger for Phones, Tablets
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The European Parliament is calling for common chargers to be introduced that would fit all mobile phones and tablets.
Although technology companies have previously been encouraged to work together on developing a universal charger, officials say “voluntary agreements between different industry players have not yielded the desired results”.
According to EU officials as reported by Sky News, the changes would make customers’ lives easier and help the environment, with estimates suggesting that old chargers generate more than 51,000 tonnes of electronic waste each year.
Members of the European Parliament are planning to vote on the measure at a future session, Sky News reports.
The EU has been calling for chargers to be standardised for several years.
Should the measure be adopted, it means Samsung, Tecno, Huawei, LG and other big gadget manufacturers could be under pressure to produce the same chargers for gadgets in Rwanda and the while global market.
Adoption could take years to reach the ordinary Rwandan, but if the move was adopted, it would significantly change how we live here. You find in the same house there are several cables, all charging different gadgets.
Such a proposal could be especially challenging for American giant Apple, which has shipped more than a billion iPhones and iPads which use a so-called Lightning connector.
Last January, Apple, the maker of the iPhone and other gadgets, argued that such a law would stifle innovation, harm the environment and cause unnecessary disruption for its users.
The tech giant warned: “More than one billion Apple devices have shipped using a Lightning connector in addition to an entire ecosystem of accessory and device manufacturers who use Lightning to serve our collective customers.
“We want to ensure that any new legislation will not result in the shipment of any unnecessary cables or external adaptors with every device, or render obsolete the devices and accessories used by many millions of Europeans and hundreds of millions of Apple customers worldwide.”
