News

Inside thousands of Canadian homes there exists a junk drawer; one that is practically overflowing with discarded floppy disks, old Walkmans and dozens of orphaned cellphone charger cords from devices long since discarded.

On Tuesday, 17 of the world's largest cellphone companies - including heavyweights Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. - struck a deal to create a universal standard charging system for cellphones by 2012, one that may help to reduce the number of mismatched cords filling the closets and drawers of Canadian households.

Users of Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry devices are in luck since the new standard is the trapezoid-shaped microUSB format used on RIM's most recent devices, such as the Bold, Storm and Pearl Flip.

Fans of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, however, will likely be out of luck, since it is unlikely the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer giant will abandon the flat and wide docking format used on the cords that charge and transfer data to the company's iPhone and iPod devices.

"Apple is generally pretty comfortable doing things in a proprietary fashion if they see benefits for themselves," said Charles Golvin, principal technology analyst for Forrester Research Group.

Members of the GSM Association - an industry group consisting of more than 750 mobile-telecom companies - said that the standardization of cellphone chargers could cut energy consumption by as much as 50 per cent globally and could reduce greenhouse gases by as much as 13.6 to 21.8 million tonnes per year.

Although some cellphone makers may eventually see lower revenues from the sale of high-margin replacement cords as users switch to the new standard, they will likely save on packaging and manufacturing costs since they won't necessarily need to include a charging cord with every new device.

"Eventually there's going to be reduced production because there won't be as many being bundled in the sales package at retail," Mr. Golvin said.

Some companies, such as Nokia, have developed a reputation for manufacturing charging cords that work with any of the company's devices, including smart phones, Bluetooth headsets and other accessories.

Still, the days of cellphones requiring a physical charging cord could be numbered.

When Palm Inc. unveiled the Pre smart phone at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, it also showcased the Touchstone wireless charging adapter. Users simply place their phone on the circular Touchstone slab, which then charges the battery without the need for a charging cord.