Agreed. I should pay more attention before I post.
We sell professional electronics and not consumer ones, but I have a hard time seeing this as the driving force in the design process. There are some goods which the secondary sales are profitable, such as razor blades, but not generally power supplies.
Standardization doesn’t happen in a vacuum or without a driving force. Within a company, standardization can sometimes help reduce component costs, but the balance between a minor savings vs. a major time commitment to implement a standards committee, ensure compliance, etc. often tips against the minor savings.
Some products sell better if they are standard. You would never buy a flash memory drive that isn’t USB because everyone conforms to these standards. Standards committees happen when it’s obvious that it’s in the best interest of the participants, and there isn’t a huge cry for standardization of power supplies.
It’s easy to assume that companies want to lock you into a product and then squeeze you for more money, but I’d need more information to agree on this case.
its silly to think that the reason against standardized power supplies is so your phone company can charge you more if you lose yours instead of you going some place else for a replacement. if phones were standardized then the sales for replacement chargers would pretty much even out for all phone companies (or for that matter phone companies could stop making the chargers at all and leave that to a 3rd party.)
but just because its silly doesnt mean thats not a reason.
But most “generic” phone chargers you can buy come with a lead with half a dozen different connectors attached, for all the major phone brands. Clearly having a different-shaped plug hasn’t deterred people from making cheap after-market chargers.
Again though, there isn’t a compelling reason to standardize chargers. You simply don’t get competing manufacturers sitting down and agree to anything, unless there’s a strong compelling case for it.
Hell, even our company doesn’t use the same adapters for all of our equipment. Different engineering teams come up with different solutions for different products and because standardization isn’t identified as a major priority, then we use a selection of voltages.
As a note, the phone companies don’t make their own adapters. Power supplies are almost 100% manufactured by third parties, but branded and packaged for sale by the phone company.
Thanks for your replies everyone. What prompted the question was that whilst spring cleaning I found about a dozen different types of phone charger lying about the house. Then, my friend called over and her phone was dead and not one of these chargers was the correct one.
I’d say it’s not actually the phone manufacturers that make money on chargers, it’s the carriers. Verizon loves selling you $30 car chargers, and I’m sure it tells that to the manufacturers whenever it’s asked.
My Verizon Motorola has a regular usb plug, but when you plug it into a computer it says “unauthorized charger.”
I agree that having custom chargers relieves a few headaches for the manufacturers, but I’m sure the accessories business makes them think twice about changing the system. I think the US should just pass a law, the way China did.
Well, I don’t know. I work for a cell phone manufacturer, and our margins on accessories (like charges) are pretty decent. I mean, I’m sure Verizon’s profit percentage is bigger than ours, but we’re certainly not losing money on the deal.
TokyoPlayer’s experience is similar to mine - we make phones with different stuff - some charge through mini-USB, some don’t. Sometimes it’s because it’s a derivative phone, other times it is because of the layout of all the components in the phone, and I’m certain sometimes it’s cost consideration.