Industry Pushes to Standardise 3.5mm Jack On Phones

Author	Gordon Kelly
Published	9th Oct 2009

Industry Pushes to Standardise 3.5mm Jack On Phones

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Hooray for common sense!

After years and years of calling for the standardisation of 3.5mm audio jacks on mobile phones, international industry body the CTIA Wireless Association has finally announced it is pushing that very motion. The plan is to make 3.5mm jacks standard on all handsets released after January 2012, the exact same timeframe as universal charger format microUSB is expected to come into force.

"By simplifying input and output features on mobile devices, economies of scale will reduce consumers' costs," said CTIA president Steve Largent. Well I never.

At this stage we have yet to hear which manufacturers are backing the scheme, but it should gain widespread support since most do at least include the port on their higher end models. Furthermore, the universal charger proposal was met with extensive backing when it was announced and includes the likes of 3 Group, Apple, AT&T, KTF, LG, mobilkom austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

So will it all be smooth sailing? I'm not so sure, after all quite what the CTIA would make of Apple's proprietary headphone technology is another matter entirely...

Link:
Via Yahoo! Tech

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Andrew Violet said on 9th October 2009

no 1st gen iphone style jacks please!

Hingy said on 9th October 2009

A 6.3mm jack will be more useful than a 6.5...

Dan said on 12th October 2009

Hingy / ilovethemonkeyhead - while on the subject, I've always wondered what the point in the 6.3mm is?
Is it just for the extra physical strength on devices that are likely... more