For those of you who’ve swapped to a new manufacturer with your new phone, you’ll no doubt be aware of the annoyances when it comes to chargers; every manufacturer has their own type! And you can guarantee, when you’re in desperate need of a charger, you can never find the right one. Even sticking to the same manufacturer doesn’t mean you’re safe; Nokia phones originally supported a thicker single pin, then switching to a thinner connector and finally settling on microUSB.

Some manufacturers have tried to remedy this by including backwards compatibility in new phones. The N97 for example, comes packed with an adapter that lets you use both previous generations of Nokia chargers. But what about charging other makes of mobile phones, wishful thinking? Not anymore…

For those of you who begrudge buying new accessories, are terribly disorganised or just like charging your phone on your PC, you’ll be pleased to hear that the European Commission has announced that the majority of leading manufacturers have agreed to adopt MicroUSB as a standard European charging socket including the likes of Apple, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG. Whilst undoubtedly a step in the right direction for convenience, the announcement also has environmental benefits. With reportedly around 4000 tons of mobile phone accessories thrown away each year, changing a phone will no longer mean changing your charger and throwing away your old one.

With manufacturers already adopting MicroUSB and others expected to follow suit and start rolling out devices at the start of next year, the dark days of proprietary accessories could finally be coming to an end.