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June 29, 2009

Universal Cell phone Charger

I read on The Consumerist that the E.U. Agrees To Universal Standard For Phone Chargers. Many critique the current variety of charging systems as profit maximizing waste. That is, cell phone manufacturers create needless variety to raise the price of accessories to ensure healthy profits. Defenders say that different electronics, battery, and form factor (size) specifications necessitate different adapters. In any case, there now exists generic hardware requiring only simple adapter plugs when upgrading your phone. See for example the Igo system. It is also true that within a single manufacturer there are often few different chargers required. When the BlueEyedGirl upgraded to her new phone she was able to keep the same charger because she moved from a Razor to a Krazor and they used the same adapter. That was one reason why she picked it. Those desiring to retain the same accessories can easily choose from a few updated models that will continue to use them. However, a generic charging system probably will differ from the current ones, necessitating that everyone buy new equipment, including that small group that actually wanted to avoid buying new accessories.

Let's recap. Many people won't care, and will have possibly sub-optimal generic accessories. Some people will care, but they will have to buy new accessories because phones using their old systems won't be available. Economies of scale and competition will probably reduce prices on accessories, though I've been buying cheap (well below retail) accessories on Ebay for years, so I'm skeptical of the savings here.

I'm curious what will happen in the US market. I'd say we can judge the effectiveness of this regulation by its consequences outside the region. If there really are big savings from additional standardization and competition, one would expect that phones offered in the US will conform to the EU standard. However, the world's best selling phone, the Nokia's 1100 handset has sold over 200 million units, so I'm skeptical that there are additional scale economies. Additionally, manufacturers must already make somewhat different charging system for the varying power systems around the world, and there is some variation within product lines, so it can't be too expensive to have differing hardware by region. We shall see.

Posted by OneEyedMan at June 29, 2009 3:22 PM

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