PV demand from the bottoms up

Its long been my opinion that most peoples first exposure to PV will be through simple battery chargers. The problem has been that there wasn't a standard charger interface for all the cell phones and gadgets. The EU has just taken an important step in standardizing uniform cell phone chargers beginning next year. I suspect that the US will likely follow suit adopting the standard. Hopefully all the other handheld gadgets worldwide will adopt the same standard. With such widespread adoption of the charging interface, it is likely PVs battery chargers will be introduced to support this standard interface. I'll venture they'll retail in the $20 to $30 range and they'll make popular gifts. Hopefully such PV chargers will help driving further economies of scale in the PV industry.

indyflick said:

...I suspect that the US will likely follow suit adopting the standard...

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Most non-Apple newer phones are already micro-USB.

That's very good news. There's gotta be literally thousands of unique charger types floating around for all the different makes and models of cell phones. Now there are solar cell phone chargers available, but of course they come with an assortment of adapters and can still only support some of the more popular phones.

DeaneG said:

Most non-Apple newer phones are already micro-USB.

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I'd like to see micro-USB become standard for all small gadgets that don't require more than 5V to charge. USB is so versatile, it just makes life so much simpler.