Stefan Mileschin

The nation which gave the world the Swiss Army knife has suddenly decided that you can have too many of one thing.

Switzerland has decided that there will be a single, universal phone charger across the country, standardising phone chargers across the board.

While the exact standard hasn’t been mentioned yet, it wouldn’t be hard to guess that Micro USB, will be used across phone platforms.

This is going to be a swift kick in the nadgers for Apple which has made a killing by using proprietary chargers since introducing the iPhone in 2007. Apple often relies on DRM software to ensure that it’s an Apple certified cable, charging $19 a piece for the Lightning charger used by the iPhone 5 and 6 and similar models.

“The standardisation efforts specified in the new legal basis concern, among other things, mobile telephones and other devices which will have to be compatible with a universal charger by mid-2017 at the latest,” the Swiss government said in a press release. “This measure will reduce the quantity of chargers and therefore the amount of electronic waste.”

It will be coming soon to European Union countries which also want a common standard. Apple, of course, does not give a monkeys. It suggested it would instead introduce a Lightning-to-Micro-USB adapter which it will charge $19 for, these will come included with iPhones shipped to the European Union.

http://www.techeye.net/news/swiss-th...-is-a-bad-idea