uniform charger: Mobile Industry, govt meeting on Wednesday on uniform device chargers

Smartphone companies and industry organizations will be meeting with officials in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs Wednesday to explore the option of having a common charging port for all electronic devices, in line with Europe. The move will benefit consumers at large but lead to higher costs for feature phone makers and impact smartphone major Apple, say experts.

The government is exploring the option of having a single charging port – USB Type-C, across all mobile devices including laptops, smartphones, feature phones, and IoT (internet of Things) devices, according to industry executives.

Industry executives who will be attending the meeting will inform the government of the pros and cons of the move.

The move will benefit the consumers the most, as currently, they have to carry multiple charging cables for the mobile devices they own. There are separate charging cables for laptops, Apple devices and Android smartphones, which often leads consumers to look for specific chargers when the devices run out of charge.

However, the device manufacturers will have a hard time implementing a common standard, as the charging standards are different for each. The move will not affect Android smartphones as much, since most Android smartphones use USB-C ports for charging.

However, feature phones which rely on the micro-USB standard, budget and high-end gaming laptops which rely on proprietary charging standards to drive power to their devices, as well as the IoT devices which rely on legacy ports will have to change their industrial and mechanical designs to accommodate the movement.

Furthermore, the move will impact Apple devices the most as the Cupertino-based company has its own charging standard for iPhones and MacBooks, said industry executives.

That means additional costs in manufacturing, which will likely be passed on to the consumers.

The European Union has agreed to implement USB Type-C as the common standard for all mobile devices including smartphones, tablets and other small and medium-sized electronics by 2024. Laptop makers will also have to adapt to the requirements 40 months after the notification comes into force.

The industry executive said that while it’s easier for Europe to adopt to a single charging standard, where consumers prefer to buy high-end devices, doing it in India would mean even the budget devices, which accounts for the highest volumes, will have to change their designs, which would mean additional costs in manufacturing, and may not be feasible for the manufacturers.