Good news for mobile phone users in EU countries – a voluntary agreement by the major mobile phone manufacturers came into force in the EU on January 1 where all new phones announced for sale in the EU in the coming years must have a standard micro-USB socket for charging the device.

GHacks.net reports that the companies who have signed up to the measure – intended to reduce the number of chargers sold and discarded in Europe – include Apple, Nokia, Qualcomm, HTC, RIM, LG, Motorola and Samsung.

GHacks zeros in on a major point about Apple and the iPhone:

[...] It will be interesting to see how this impacts on Apple’s next iPhone as these phones have always carried proprietary hardware interfaces.  Will the next iPhone switch entirely to micro-USB, will it have a micro-USB socket alongside the standard iPhone connector and will any change only affect handsets sold in the EU?

A very good point. I’d add another: what about the huge ecosystem that’s built up around Apple’s mobile devices? Docks, music systems, accessories: there’s a huge global industry there that’s heavily invested in Apple’s proprietary interface. And not only Apple: look at all of the manufacturers who have proprietary interfaces.

A great opportunity awaits someone to make adapters for the adapters…

Related post:

• Fingers crossed for a mobile industry standard