[maratd]

> The emergence of USB as The Way Phones are Charged didn't happen as a magic emergent property, but via considered government regulation. Government: it can actually work.

This is such nonsense, I don't even know where to begin. This was already the case in the US and there is no government mandate for it to be that way.

Are you going to give credit to the EU for that too?

They simply passed that regulation after it was already clear that things were going to end up there. It was a recognition of the status quo, it had zero effect.

[gioele]

> This is such nonsense, I don't even know where to begin. This was already the case in the US and there is no government mandate for it to be that way.

History please.

The USB-socket-in-the-phone standard for recharging phones started once China demanded _de jure_ in 2006 that all data-enabled phones could be recharged using mini/micro-USB. That request had a huge impact: at that time Nokia produced phones with data-only USB ports that could not be used to charge the phone. Suddenly "+1" and "C" models of Nokia's phone started appearing, all with the ability to charge using the USB port. Initially these models where sold only in Asia, then the producers started selling them everywhere, just to streamline the production.

Then, in 2008, the EU Commission asked the producers of mobile handsets to agree on a standard, whatever standard. If they could not came up with a single solution the Commission threatened that they would _impose_ a solution.

In 2010 all the big producers agreed to use micro USB. That was an easy choice, as they were already forced to use it for all the phones sold in China.

In 2010/2011 the CEN and ETSI standardization bodies sat down and produced a spec that mirrors the micro-USB spec.

Now, in 2013, the EU is about to set the CEN spec in stone.

Governments played a big role here. China's regulations first and EU "pressure" later is what lead us to the current status.

[makomk]

It sounds about right to me. For example, I have a Samsung phone that predates the EU agreement by a couple of years and even though it charges off 5V at USB current levels and uses USB for data syncing, the charging/data connector is some proprietary Samsung one and it can't charge from a USB port with the official cable. There's a couple of Samsung connectors, Sony Ericsson had one, Nokia favoured barrel jacks with various oddball voltage and current requirements, and Motorola Razr phones used the mini USB port for charging in a way that was incompatible with everything else.

[PhasmaFelis]

> This was already the case in the US and there is no government mandate for it to be that way.

Hah, in 2009? It really, really wasn't. I bought an off-the-shelf flip phone in 2010 that still used some godawful proprietary connector.

One of my roommates had a phone that used mini-USB, but it was the wrong end (mini-A instead of mini-B), which is a lot like buying an MP3 player and finding a 3.5mm prong sticking out of it instead of a socket. I absolutely do credit government intervention in China and the EU with forcing manufacturers to clean up their act.

[BHSPitMonkey]

No, the EU mandate certainly had a large effect in the US. Why would manufacturers bother using two different charging port standards per model when they're only being compelled to use one? You must have a short memory if you've already forgotten just how recently the market was still riddled with Mini-USB and a hodgepodge of other connection formats.