[bryanlarsen]

I thought that another big advantage of micro USB over mini USB was that it's a lot easier to combine type A & B. The difference between A & B is most obvious in a full size USB cable. The "A" plug is the flat side that goes into your computer, and the "B" plug is the square one that goes into your device.

The differentiation made a lot of sense when USB was exclusively master-slave. However, the addition of the on-the-go standard (OTG) means that things like a cell phone can function as either a master or a slave. Thus the connector on your cell phone is likely a micro-AB connector that can accept either a type-A or type-B plug so you can connect your cell phone to both computers & storage devices without requiring two different ports.

However, a double check before posting indicates that a mini-AB standard does exist. So that's not the reason. I'll post anyways because I think it's useful information on its own...