I just read a story on MarketWatch (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/tech-consumers-could-use-little/story.aspx?guid={1197454F-AABB-47E9-AE02-9FE1A98CD868}&dist=msr_2) about the EU trying to force cell phone and laptop manufacturers to use a universal charger. This is used as an argument that the US government needs to step up their meddling in their citizens' lives. I'm not going to comment on why excessive government regulation is bad or how Mr. Dvorak is a fucking idiot (read Slashdot to find all about him). Instead I'm going to focus on why the charger idea is retarded.
The argument put forth in the article is that the reason that cell phones, lap tops and other consumer gadgets all have different chargers is that the companies who product them are all greedy corporate whores. The article also claims that the government needs to step in and save consumers because they are too dumb to figure out that the overpriced chargers are a bad deal. The proposed solution is to force companies to use the same charger.
While it is true that these companies charge outrageous prices for the replacement chargers, it is a fallacy to assume that the free market cannot fix this problem. In reality, it already has. It is possible to buy off-brand chargers for any cell phone and some laptops that cost significantly less than the chargers sold by the manufacturers. Many chargers are only available from one source, however. The reason for this is that they only work for a relatively small number of devices. It is not economical - for ANYONE - to make them at a lower price. It it was, someone would have done it. The free market has already fixed this "problem."
But, wait! We could force everyone to use the same charger, so that noone could possibly gouge their customers every!
You wish. The assumption that companies all use different chargers and even have model specific chargers for their many different products because they are greedy and want to make money is false. It ignores physical, scientific and economic fact. First, if it would be of utility for consumers, then there is a profit to be made. Sony could make one single charger that works for all Sony products. This would give them the advantage that customers could buy a Sony charger for any of their Sony products, increase sales of Sony chargers and bring costs down. Consumers would have cheap chargers if they bought Sony and sales for all Sony products would increase! Why don't they do this?
The fact is that there is a very specific technical reason that there are so many different chargers out there. The reason is that every single cell phone, lap top and other battery powered gadget out there has different power requirements. Cell phones need less power than laptops. A cellphone that has a 5 day battery needs more power than a phone that has a 3 day batter. Each and every cell phone, laptop and battery powered gadget out there is engineered to use only the power it needs and no more. This allows them to be competitive in the ever changing portable market. Lighter, smaller, and longer lasting batteries make better selling products.
Different batteries need different chargers that deliver different amounts of current at different voltages over different amounts of time. This means that to be competitive in today's market, each and every model produced will have different charging requirements and there for different chargers. And no, they can't all have the same plug. Plugging the wrong charger in to a battery will result in fire or even an explosion.
The market knows best. The government doesn't know shit. And John C. Dvorak has no business writing about anything related to technology.