One of the key elements of smartphone development has been the desire to standardize all the peripheral equipment that goes along with a smartphone, allowing for a more universal use of this equipment. Some companies, such as Apple, have, however, always had a strong focus on keeping things “in the family”, as it were. Apple products have long been designed to work with Apple accessories and nothing else. This is the reason why, even though it would theoretically be very easy indeed to have, for example, a charging cable or camera lens that works with every smartphone out there, there is, in fact, diversity.
Pale Blue Earth, a company that produces USB rechargeable smart batteries which resemble and are used in exactly the same way as traditional AA or AAA batteries, note that this kind of universal applicability is not the norm in the industry when it comes to smartphone products.
Do We Need Universal Chargers?
Whether we need them or not is something of a moot point because we are not going to get them. Even though the li-ion revolution, which has made everything from electric cars to battery-backed up power girds possible, seems to be aiming towards a world where almost everything is battery powered, there is no clear desire within the industry to standardize certain battery products.
We have all been in the situation. You are out and about, and you would like to charge your iPhone. If you are like most people, you don’t head up to the bar or ask your friends if they have a charger, you ask if they have an iPhone charger. Sometimes, you’re in luck; other times, all your friends can offer is a useless piece of kit which contains all the technology needed to charge your phone but just won’t fit into it.
Different Types of Smartphone Chargers
So, if you want to understand the, at times strange, vicissitudes of the currently ongoing battery revolution, understanding that convenience is not always the highest value is key.
To drive this point home then, here follows several different types of smartphone charger:
USB-Type A Charger
USB-Type A chargers have “male” connectors which attach to “female” Type A ports on laptops and smartphones. These type A chargers are fast becoming obsolete, and some of the newest smartphones do not have ports for them.
USB-Type B Charger
These charging cables have the characteristic square shape and are far more commonly used for things like printers, scanners, and electronic storage devices. However, to draw power from anything with the right port, these types of chargers can be used for that. Unfortunately, Type B ports are also vanishing.
USB-Type C
This is the most modern type of USB charger, and it is the one most commonly featured with the latest devices. Their great advantage is that they can be plugged in in any orientation, meaning that they are slightly easier to use. Of course, they still need the right port.
Micro-USB Chargers
These chargers have become the standard chargers for Samsung and LG phones. It is perhaps for this reason that they are the most popular smartphone charger on the globe. Of course, they will still be useless with your iPhone.
Lightning Charger
Patented, owned, and exclusively used by Apple, these are the familiar iPhone chargers. They are highly efficient and can charge your phone very quickly. But again, there is no universal applicability.
At least we can say one thing about this diversity among smartphone chargers – among the standardization of battery power which seems to be in store for us, they will remain the one area where diversity reigns.