Swiss government wants universal charger for Smartphones in 2017

[as96]

Looking at you Apple

[GeekJump]

I picked option two :3

 

I would like a standard to exist but also leave room for improvement and change. But then again don't we kinda already have that now? Micro USB and Lightening are the only major plugs (and soon Type C will replace Micro). 

 

2 Options isn't so bad. It's not like every Manufacturer wants to be a dick and make their own connectors, like apple! (sorry just had to troll a bit )

[theereal]

That's fucking retarded. Bias much? I don't like Apple or their marketing strategies either, but granted, they still have some very quality products. To classify anyone who buys from Apple to be "dumb" only makes you look dumb.

Dude, calm down It was a joke, Apple Isnt all bad, they do have for example a very good OS. OSX Is usually much more stable than Windows and their computers are tested to be stable before they are shipped... Learn to take a joke... damn.... Butthurt lvl 100...

[theereal]

thanks for calling me dumb! i happen to enjoy my few apple products thanks.

Dude, calm down It was a joke, Apple Isnt all bad, they do have for example a very good OS. OSX Is usually much more stable than Windows and their computers are tested to be stable before they are shipped... Learn to take a joke... damn.... Butthurt lvl 100...

[theereal]

Dumb is the one who judges technology for meaningless numbers. You pay what you get, and as far as Apple goes, its so far the best in the mobile industry. 

My post was kind of a joke and a shot at Apple, their OS for example Is far more stable than Windows, but no, they are not the best In the mobile Industry

[niofalpha]

3 years from now it'll be

"Why have phones not changed at all".

There's a difference between Standards that help the industry, and ones that hurt it.

[Unhelpful]

Apple will probably ditch the Lightning connector with the next iPhone, so we'll have USB-C on there as well. Now we need to get rid of that stupid micro-B connector that's weak as fuck boom, problem solved.

Uhhh... What? You actually think Apple will ditch Lightning for USB-C? Apple isn't exactly well known for going with what everyone else uses.

 

What makes you think that is likely?

[sandboarder08]

FYI Switzerland is not in the EU.

[CommandMan7]

I don't care why they want micro usb, but why do governments think that they should be allowed to dictate what designs companies can and cannot use? Since when was this their role? Seems like they're just overreaching their powers. Sure, a lot of people might like this particular decision, but what if it was the other way around, forcing everyone to adopt apple's lightning connector? Then everyone would be hating and complaining. 

 

This is a very dangerous precedent. This could have harmful implications in the future. 

 

I don't care if people like this particular decision, just wait until they start requiring everyone to use the same filetypes, for example. They could just as easily say .docx, .pages, and .odf files discourage cross-platform interactivity and should be illegal, and all word processors must use the .rtf filetype. 

 

Edit:

They apparently did it only because 

 

 

 

“This measure will reduce the quantity of chargers and therefore the amount of electronic waste.”

 

What kind of logic is that? Make everyone throw away their non-micro usb connectors for the sake of reducing E-waste? 

[Real_PhillBert]

Sure, QI charging.

 

It's the only way to avoid issues with future pinouts and connector advances. 

 

But IMHO the government should have exactly zero say in what charging standard companies prefer to use on their devices. 

[VerticalDiscussions]

-snip-

Unless you have some factual proof of that statement, regarding any other company with higher popularity and software implementation, then your totally wrong, Apple is the leading company in mobile communications (Like you said OS and Corporate Value). Its not about technological advancement, its about facts and you have to prove your theory.

[Unhelpful]

Unless you have some factual proof of that statement, regarding any other company with higher popularity and software implementation, then your totally wrong, Apple is the leading company in mobile communications (Like you said OS and Corporate Value).

You need to back that up. Leading in what? They sure aren't in market share at 14.6% compared to Samsung's 21.9% with Android as a whole making up 82.2% of the market. Apple is the leader of the world in hoarding money with a market value of over 700 billion. I would argue that they are leading in hardware in a very stagnant time by putting NVMe drives in their phones, and without even using it as a selling point! Please clarify on them leading in the actual OS sector though, I'm not sure how you would quantify that.

 

You need to clarify what you are referring to when you say that apple is the leading company in mobile communications, because in most aspects they are NOT leading. 

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2974005/phones/apple-increase-gains-market-share-despite-global-slowdown-in-smartphone-sales.html

http://fortune.com/2015/02/10/apple-the-first-700-billion-company/

 

Although I actually like Apple products and hate all phones Samsung has put out in the last 4 years.

[Stefan1024]

Calm down girls and boys!

 

Actually there is already a law enforcing this in the EU and as far as I know in the US as well.

But only the charger has to be universal with an USB conncetor. The cable from the charger to the phone can still be proprietary. That is fine and doesn't needed to be changed.

Switzerland is finally also erforcing this too.

[Delicieuxz]

North America is already standardized, isn't it? I think the lack of standardization is a European thing.

 

Anyway, it's a good thing for sure. Companies like to be non-standardized because then each device's connector is proprietary, and each manufacturer can charge a bigger premium for their socket, and can ensure that their customers will only buy from them. Basically, non-standardization enables price-gouging and anti-competitiveness.

 

Standardization doesn't keep the industry from moving to something new and better. If something better comes out, then the industry will make use of it - using a standardized connector.

[VerticalDiscussions]

-snip-

Thanks a lot for clarifying something, yes you are right on that aspect, sorry for that. What i meant to say was that regarding Apples Os stability (The support given and the work by Apple to theyr customers globally) when you take the perspective of both hardware and software optimization with guaranteed updates and little incopatibility across model ranges.

 

http://money.cnn.com/interactive/technology/iphone-android-comparison/

 

Quote from Notebook Check (The PowerVR GT7600 from Imagination Technologies is a high-end smartphone GPU as part of the Apple A9 SoC for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. At the time of announcement on September 2015, it is the fastest GPU for smartphones and even bests current tablet GPUs.), when regarding the hardware perspective, only being beaten by the Tegra X1, A9X.

[Unhelpful]

Thanks a lot for clarifying something, yes you are right on that aspect, sorry for that. What i meant to say was that regarding Apples Os stability (The support given and the work by Apple to theyr customers globally) when you take the perspective of both hardware and software optimization with guaranteed updates and little imcopatibility across model ranges.

 

http://money.cnn.com/interactive/technology/iphone-android-comparison/

 

Quote from Notebook Check (The PowerVR GT7600 from Imagination Technologies is a high-end smartphone GPU as part of the Apple A9 SoC for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. At the time of announcement on September 2015, it is the fastest GPU for smartphones and even bests current tablet GPUs.), when regarding the hardware prespective, only being beaten by the Tegra X1, A9X.

And their phones receive updates for much longer on average than most competitors. 

[jaggysnake57]

You need to back that up. Leading in what? They sure aren't in market share at 14.6% compared to Samsung's 21.9% with Android as a whole making up 82.2% of the market. Apple is the leader of the world in hoarding money with a market value of over 700 billion. I would argue that they are leading in hardware in a very stagnant time by putting NVMe drives in their phones, and without even using it as a selling point! Please clarify on them leading in the actual OS sector though, I'm not sure how you would quantify that.

 

You need to clarify what you are referring to when you say that apple is the leading company in mobile communications, because in most aspects they are NOT leading. 

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2974005/phones/apple-increase-gains-market-share-despite-global-slowdown-in-smartphone-sales.html

http://fortune.com/2015/02/10/apple-the-first-700-billion-company/

 

Although I actually like Apple products and hate all phones Samsung has put out in the last 4 years.

They lead in the sense that they create and everyone else copies

[Unhelpful]

They lead in the sense that they create and everyone else copies

That's one of those things you can't really say without examples. They were hardly the first in anything large markets, there were earlier smartphones (not good but there were) there were tablets (again, not that good), etc, etc. Apple steals plenty as well, they always have. Shamelessly. So please give some examples. Everybody in those industries copy, and each of them has one or two changes/innovations per decade that the rest steal from.

 

 

 

http://www.cnet.com/news/what-steve-jobs-really-meant-when-he-said-good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672799/5-ideas-apple-gleefully-stole-from-google-twitter-and-microsoft

 

Stealing and copying are good things in that industry. And Apple does plenty of both, as does everyone else.

[Sauron]

Apple are the only ones arrogant enough to not be doing that already. I wouldn't be surprised if they just stopped selling their stuff in Switzerland, they hardly need the market. I hope they standardize to type c though and not micro usb

[DXMember]

don't we already have this? that's what the micro usb is supposed to be

well except for apple...

[Nup]

By god this thread is full of some nasty shit stuff. I'd like to see something universal, adds a lot of "ease of life" type quality. Although I'm not sure how the Swiss tend to implement this, I mean it's a great intention but I can't see it being taken up easily... Or at all. 

[dalekphalm]

Calm down girls and boys!

 

Actually there is already a law enforcing this in the EU and as far as I know in the US as well.

But only the charger has to be universal with an USB conncetor. The cable from the charger to the phone can still be proprietary. That is fine and doesn't needed to be changed.

Switzerland is finally also erforcing this too.

There is most definitely not a law enforcing Smartphone charging standards in the US. Companies are free to use any connector port they want. Micro USB has become the de facto standard among basically all smartphones aside from Apple, but it's not by law.

 

North America is already standardized, isn't it? I think the lack of standardization is a European thing.

 

Anyway, it's a good thing for sure. Companies like to be non-standardized because then each device's connector is proprietary, and each manufacturer can charge a bigger premium for their socket, and can ensure that their customers will only buy from them. Basically, non-standardization enables price-gouging and anti-competitiveness.

 

Standardization doesn't keep the industry from moving to something new and better. If something better comes out, then the industry will make use of it - using a standardized connector.

North America is no more standardized than the EU. Micro USB remains the de facto standard, but manufacturers are free to use whatever port they want. Apple chooses to use the Lightning Connector, for example (It really is superior to Micro USB - we'll see how it compares to USB Type C over the long term though).

 

In fact, North America is less standardized compared to the EU, because there is no law forcing manufacturers to use any specific port type. Nor should there be. Mark my words, this will stifle innovation in the long run. Once a specific connector is adopted as the "standard", changing to a new one will be a much bigger hassle then it already is.

[Stefan1024]

There is most definitely not a law enforcing Smartphone charging standards in the US. Companies are free to use any connector port they want. Micro USB has become the de facto standard among basically all smartphones aside from Apple, but it's not by law.

North America is no more standardized than the EU. Micro USB remains the de facto standard, but manufacturers are free to use whatever port they want. Apple chooses to use the Lightning Connector, for example (It really is superior to Micro USB - we'll see how it compares to USB Type C over the long term though).

I'm not talking about the connector on the phone, it the one on the charger (USB type A female) the is universal.

[dalekphalm]

I'm not talking about the connector on the phone, it the one on the charger (USB type A female) the is universal.

That's not a law, or a universal standard. It's a de facto standard, just like the Micro USB side is.

 

It just so happens that most charging cables are also data cables, so it makes sense from a manufacturers perspective to use USB Type A Male as the other end of the cable, and by extension, to use USB Type A Female as the input port on the charger brick.

[Speedyv]

Trump supporters be like: Communists!

 

lol