Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO: Says microUSB charging will become the Standard in US by 2012

[dgstorm]

Apparently, even the CEO's of our cellular carriers go through the same pain we consumers do regarding cell phone chargers. Dan Hesse, Sprint's CEO, recently described the problem of multiple different types of charging plugs from phone to phone as "a pet peeve of mine for a very long time". He expects a standardized microUSB charging plug to become the norm by January of 2012. This way all new US phones will be able to use the same plug to charge their battery with. That would be very nice indeed. Let's 'knock on wood' that it actually happens.

Source: SprintDroids via PhoneArena

[DroidCoug]

I bet apple is not happy about this

[Dorian]

I bet apple is not happy about this

Apple doesn't have to comply. :rolleyes:

I'd actually prefer they didn't. I have too many things with dock connectors for them to go around changing the port standard.

[Martin030908]

They've been leaning toward microUSB for a while now... glad to see there's a date targeted.

Definitely will be nice.... say you're with a friend, your phone's dying, and you want to use their car charger or house charger... right now it's a crap shoot whether or not they have the same charger...

[alostpacket]

This is actually something I specifically look for, and why I'm regrettably not buying a Xoom eventhough it looks like a nice peice of kit. The only reason USB (micro, mini or otherwise) was not used for so long is because these companies wanted to milk accessory sales. As consumers we should never stand for this (IMO). Interchangeable parts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia have been around since 1801-1803ish. We shouldn't have to go back 200+ years technologically because some CEO wants to put a 500% markup on a cable.

[Dorian]

This is actually something I specifically look for, and why I'm regrettably not buying a Xoom eventhough it looks like a nice peice of kit. The only reason USB (micro, mini or otherwise) was not used for so long is because these companies wanted to milk accessory sales. As consumers we should never stand for this (IMO). Interchangeable parts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia have been around since 1801-1803ish. We shouldn't have to go back 200+ years technologically because some CEO wants to put a 500% markup on a cable.

LOL... And it only hurts the OEM. Nobody I know of has EVER bought OEM accessories. Cheap 3rd party from Amazon FTW.