Sometimes new ideas are announced that make you think, “Why hasn’t that been done already?” And the announcement that mobile phone manufacturers are planning to make all of their handsets compatible with a universal adaptor is one of them.

The deal has been arranged by GSMA, and it couldn’t have come soon enough. It is definitely a good thing to be seen to be green at the moment, with the number of eco-friendly devices and handsets appearing on the market increasing all the time, but it is the news of the imminent universal charger that could prove to be the most significant development of recent times.

It comes in the form of the micro-USB plug, which only consumes half the energy of a normal charger when on standby, and 17 manufacturers have already committed to making their phones compatible with it within the next four years. In fact, it is already available on the Blackberry Storm and on one Nokia smartphone. It is surprising that it took so long to come about, but GSMA said that actually it was rather easy in the end to arrange. All it took was the manufacturers agreeing on the technical specification and the charging current, and the deal was complete.

Every time you buy a new phone, you need a new charger. It is therefore great news that, in just four years time, we will probably not even have to buy a new charger with every phone because we already have a perfectly good one at home. And who knows, maybe this will catch on to devices other than mobile phones in the future which would lead to a huge reduction in the number of chargers required across the globe and would be a real plus for the environment.