Major mobile phone manufacturers have signed an agreement to standardise charging ports on all data enabled devices sold in Europe. According to Reuters ten major mobile phone manufacturers including Nokia have agreed to the deal backed by the European Commission.

What does this mean? Well for starters it will reduce the waste created from unwanted accessories. If you’re travelling, there will be no need to lug around multiple chargers (as many PMP’s also use micro USB), and struggling to find the right charger at your mates house will be a thing of the past.

In 2010 all mobile phones will roll out with the standardised micro USB charger in the box, and within the next three to four years manufacturers will gradually separate the two making the charger an optional accessory. The EU’s Industry Commissioner Guetner Verheugen assumes that ”this new European initiative will have a knock-on effect globally and manufacturers won’t just be doing this on the European market.”

Surprisingly Apple is also one of the ten involved in this deal, although it is not yet known if the Dock Connector will be replaced or if Apple will create an out of the box adapter for the new standard. This will no doubt be a controversial decision as many have already spent a lot of money on proprietary accessories.

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