Switzerland Aims For A Universal Phone Charger By 2017

Recently in Europe, it has been proposed that all handset manufacturers need to comply by creating a universal phone charger. While proprietary chargers for mobile devices are pretty much dead, there is still a divide between iOS devices and every other device. Apple still relies on Lightning while most, if not all, other OEMs use micro USB.

However it looks like Europe won’t be the only region to implement such a plan because over in Switzerland, it seems that the country wants universal chargers to become standard by 2017 as well. However they have not specified what kind of standard they want, but there is a good chance that we could be looking at micro USB as that is the most common charger at the moment.

According to the press release from the Swiss government, “The standardisation efforts specified in the new legal basis concern, among other things, mobile telephones and other devices which will have to be compatible with a universal charger by mid-2017 at the latest. This measure will reduce the quantity of chargers and therefore the amount of electronic waste.”

On Apple’s part, they have agreed to comply with Europe’s proposal by offering adapters for micro USB which they have stated that they will bundle with future devices.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Legal