My cell phone uses a mini USB connector to recharge. I went to buy a bluetooth headset, and found one that said that it uses a mini USB to recharge. Sweet I thought. I will only have to lug one recharger on the road.
However when I got the headset, the connector is not the same. The phone has a trapezoidal shaped connector, the headset a rectangular one with a keyway. Before anyone asks, yes I tried, and not they are not compatible. 
Both of them have cables that plug into a standard USB connector on my 'puter to recharge, but for sure on the other end they are two different connectors.
So how many different mini USB connectors are there?
Too many.
Short answer: a lot.
There appears to be no standard in this area, so if you look at 5 different models of digital camera, for example, you are likely to find 5 different types of “mini-USB” connectors.
I guess I lulled into a sense of all was the same, when my camera and my phone used the same connector. :smack:
OK, so there is no standard. Swell.
It’s not that bad. I have two external hard drives, two digital cameras, a memory card reader and a GPS receiver, all from different companies and all using the same mini-B connector (the one on the right - the left one is a mini-A which I believe is for the computer end of the cable). They all work with the mini-USB cable I bought at CompUSA.
Not that I doubt the OP - I’m sure there are some companies that use non-standard connectors.
Hell, all my digital cameras have been Kodak Easyshares, and I have three kinds of USB wires.
The mini B is what is on my camera, and phone. The headset uses something unlike either plug in the photo.
Does anyone know of any standards? How many are there? I have two college-aged sons, who have had the usual number of devices. I have always wanted them to be able to charge said devices freely: now I have many unidentifiable connectors and cables and whatnot. Has there ever been a movement to standardize?
Things have changed a lot in the 7 years since this thread was started. Now almost all phones and tablets use Micro-B USB connectors, mainly because the European Union adopted it as a standard. Most mobile peripherals do too, like Bluetooth headsets and speakers. Micro-USB is becoming increasingly common for digital cameras as well, both of my SONY digital cameras use it.
The exception is Apple, who recently switched from their proprietary 30-pin connector to a new proprietary connector.
At least six, if you include the standard form you probably have on your computer. My ebook reader and mp3 player both use the mini and my phone uses the micro. I found a double-headed connector at Walmart for about five bucks.
USB is designed to connect a host to a peripheral, so of course each end has a different connector. And you’re counting the male and female side of one of the connectors as 2.
Really there is only one type of connector for the host side (A type), and 3 types for the peripheral side: standard (which you find on most printers and hubs), mini, and micro.
You may be confusing mini and micro USB. I would bet the headset said “micro” not “mini”. Mini USB is increasingly old school at this point. Micro is what you see on most newer devices and Android smartphones. .
This is a zombie thread from 2006. The micro-USB connector hadn’t even been released as a standard back then.
USB wants braaaains.
Mini USB wasn’t popular for long. I worked on exactly one product that used it, and we changed to Micro before we shipped. I think it was starting to be used before it was really standard, and then got dropped. I have a camera from that era that uses a proprietary mini connector.
I prefer Mini as an end user - easier location features, so it’s easier to plug the cable in.
I recently bought an audio gateway setup so I could transmit sound from my TV to my hot tub. I was surprised it came with Mini USB charge connectors. They must have had a source with lots of extra minis.
There was a good chunk of time in the 2000s when all mine and my friends’ Motorola feature phones used mini-B connectors for charging. Around the same time I recall most external hard drives using the form, along with a lot of cameras and GPSs. It seemed to be turning into something of a standard until Android, Blackberry and micro-B took over.