One Nation One Charger : New Govt Initiative

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dazzwilliams

dazzwilliams

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The government is forming an expert committee to explore the use of universal chargers for mobile phones and other portable electronic devices.

Following that, a complete report is expected to be submitted in two months.
They must consider clubbing electronic devices based on power requirements.
So, maybe laptops could be a separate class from smartphones, optimising charging speeds, and giving consumers the choice of buying devices with or without chargers, bringing down cost.

m.economictimes.com

One nation, many devices, one charger

A universal charging device (UCD) will benefit users and the environment. Reducing the need for multiple charges reduces material use and e-waste generated, not to mention the headache and pocketache. GoI must set a timeline based on stakeholder consultation and an impact assessment of the measure.
m.economictimes.com m.economictimes.com
 
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Generally I appreciate consumer protection interventions driven by the EU, but in this case I'm not so sure.

I really liked Magsafe that I had been using for so long, much more than this USB-C + Thunderbolt lovechild on MacBooks that seems to be one step backwards.

Is it fit for government to intervene and force standardization upon the market when the underlying technology is evolving?
 
Government should intervene . Mobile companies have stopped giving chargers .
Companies unnessarily charge money for proprietary cables and power chargers . Each laptop company has 10 different charger brick pin points . What a joke you cant use same Acer / Asus /HP charger in anothe rlaptp at home .
Same for mobile phones . Atleast USB C done by EU was a very good thing and a way forward for our goverment
The money these companies make on these accessories and e-Waste being generated
 
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Type C PD supports 100W or more, so majority of multimedia laptops can be charged with Type C. High-performance laptops can be classified separately. Anyways, like most regulations, India will copy EU realistically, even that is good enough.
 
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salian said:
Is it fit for government to intervene and force standardization upon the market when the underlying technology is evolving?
Click to expand...
Yeah, agreed. Imagine if we had standardized during Nokia pin charger days, we would still be running with that technology. For data transfer, in "advanced" phones, there used to be a 1 inch wide connector that used to wobble with any movement of air.

Short term thinking at its finest. Generally consumer and environment protection is better in EU than the US, but EU is wrong here.
 
I don't believe gov should even have such powers, but if gov is going to possess such powers and have all these departments/spending, then we might as well use them to our advantage.

kiran6680 said:
Yeah, agreed. Imagine if we had standardized during Nokia pin charger days, we would still be running with that technology. For data transfer, in "advanced" phones, there used to be a 1 inch wide connector that used to wobble with any movement of air.

Short term thinking at its finest. Generally consumer and environment protection is better in EU than the US, but EU is wrong here.
Click to expand...
standards can change, if apple can prove that their port is superior to current standards, they can ask government to update the standards.
 
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kuduku said:
Government should intervene . Mobile companies have stopped giving chargers .
Companies unnessarily charge money for proprietary cables and power chargers . Each laptop company has 10 different charger brick pin points . What a joke you cant use same Acer / Asus /HP charger in anothe rlaptp at home .
Same for mobile phones . Atleast USB C done by EU was a very good thing and a way forward for our goverment
The money these companies make on these accessories and e-Waste being generated
Click to expand...
Phones companies not giving chargers in the name of e-waste and environment consciousness is BS. Just a ploy of earning even more. Why don’t they leave the choice to the consumer? If I need the charger I’ll take it if I don’t need it I’d skip it.
 
devagya said:
standards can change, if apple can prove that their port is superior to current standards, they can ask government to update the standards.
Click to expand...
1. This is called license-permit Raj
2. Superior comes from scale. If one has to createa few devices fora new connector, the connector will cost a billion dollars.

Apple has the money and incentives to do so, but remember last few popular interfaces did not come from Apple. Apple is merely a member in the USB-IF, just like HP, Intel, Microsoft. No one company benefits sufficiently to challenge USB-C, even if they can create a better connector. Because spending billions of dollars to "maybe" convince the governments to allow you to sell a superior product to the public to which those same governments report is not anyone's idea of sound business policy. Especially if the benefits will accrue to 1000 members of USB-IF.

So next generation standards will be expensive, less open (say proprietary to a single company rather than a standards body like USB), take more time, engender more corruption.


3. Even USB-C has many options. Governments cannot judge which ones would get popular. The right angle bends? High data Speed? High Power delivery? USB-PD ? With thunderbolt? With DP ? Some other options that didn't turn out to be so popular? Which options would the governments have approved if the companies had not tried all the options, and figured out what works?
 
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