This is what I like about the European Union
 

One charger to fit new mobiles as of next year: EU

BRUSSELS — New mobile phones sold in Europe as of next year should all work off the same universal chargers, the European Commission said on Friday.
"It is expected that consumers will be able to use the same, one-size-fits-all charger for mobile phones sold in the EU from the beginning of 2011," spokesman Dennis Abbott said.
A deal between major mobile manufacturers was agreed last year but "excludes phones which do not support USB data exchange," Abbott warned.
"However it is expected that most mobile phones will be data-enabled from 2011," he added

Just imagine how much clutter and waste will be reduced by such a decision! :)

I do agree I have four different cell phones at my house one for each of the bigger kids and two for me "1 for work 1 for personal usage" and none of them use the same charger. I just hope we do the same in the US.

But will cellphones still come with chargers, or do you need to buy one extra??

Hopefully the charger will be an optional extra.....maybe get a discount if you don't take the charger.

I have boxes full of old chargers and power supplies for cellphones, laptops, modems, printers, monitors, etc. which seem too good to just throw away.

Modularity and interchangeability!

I wonder how they made the International Space Station modules? Did they fit or did they sent someone with a grinder, cutting torch, welder, hammer and a monkey wrench?

Worse is software, just do a File, Save As. Should be standard functionality but they are all different. Maybe that's why Ubuntu is smaller and more robust than Microsoft.

The old story about Bill Gates and the guy from Ford:

Bill Gates said that computers were getting smaller and cheaper (Moore's law). The guy from Ford retorted: Well, at least our cars don't crash four times a day.

You guys are missing the important point here. If you don't make it different, how can you claim your product is better. And if the recharger worked on every phone, what do you have to sell.

I agree it is a mess. When are you going to start using the same electrical plugs so we don't have to carry around different ones.

I know this one will get you talking..... when are you going to use inches and lbs!!!

....and long screws!!!

Jan,

I have heard that in the past people designing on these things where using in the program Imperial in the US and Metrical in Europe.

It was not that one module would have been build 25.4 times bigger when a drawing was sent to europe, but during machining the imperial to metrical conversions caused rounding errors making things not fit perfectly anymore. If I am not mistaken they are all using metrical now for all drawings that are shared.

Nils, I think you are mistaken there, when are you going to use Metrical? :D A pound is not even half a kilo over there!!! ;)

The day we grow 6 extra fingers? :D :D

Go Metric/Decimal !

I have worked with lots of electronics and the non standardization for plugs for all kinds of electronics is a real pain. Waste is one of the biggest problems we face on this planet and we need to take steps to minimize it. Standardization will help here.

I work in inches and metric, due to the fact we here in Canada are faced with both. If we had to move to one system, the metric system is the most logical.

I too work with both Imperial & Metric. The sole purpose of imperial system is to get everyone confuse.

Ken, I came from Imperial and was very comfortable with it until I got to Taiwan almost a decade ago. After about two to three years of changing gears to metric, I have to agree with you. I now see why the greater majority of the world use metric. Simple, logical, and efficient.