Green Plug reacts to universal phone adapter initiative

Lincoln Spector — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:01:20 -0500

Green Plug has responded to the GSMA initiative to create a universal phone charger. While Green Plug was not part of the announcement made last Tuesday, the company said it is committed to creating a universal power adapter for all electronic gadgets, including mobile phones.

Paul Panepinto, a Green Plug executive vice president, posted an upbeat blog entry about the announcement. He praised the GSMA announcement for "[validating] the need for reusable, interchangeable power solutions for cell phones," and noted that Green Plug's own universal power adapter will be able to power all GSMA phones.

Panepinto shared some additional thoughts about the GSMA project in an email interview with the Industry Standard:

On Green Plug's relation to the GSMA initiative: "By virtue of the fact that the default power from Green Plug-enabled power adapters conforms to the USB-power standard, the load devices (cell phones) do not need to execute Greentalk, the Green Plug protocol, in order to work with Green Plug-enabled power adapters."

On the lack of major players like Apple, RIM, and Samsung publicly supporting Green Plug: "Green Plug is working with a few early adopters now, and we are a startup. We hope that the big vendors (HP, Apple, Sony, NEC and others that we have been meeting with) will decide to adopt the new, free, open systems power interface."

On the big venders preferring the status quo because they can overcharge for replacement and spare chargers: "It's a common misconception that the status quo is profitable. I have spoken with executive staff from several major electronics vendors, all of whom confirm the economics of closed, proprietary power solutions are a huge cost drain on operations. That's because the vendors must give away the initial power adapters, at their expense."

In an effort to build public support for a universal power adapter, Green Plug recently launched a website that lets consumers cast votes and send messages to electronics manufacturers. To date, less than 9,000 votes have been cast in support of a universal power adapter on iwantmygreenplug.com.

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Green Plug reacts to universal phone adapter initiative