The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday had GSMA announce its plan to realize an industry-wide standard with regard to a universal mobile phone charger by January 2012.

Bigwigs, like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, and Qualcomm, are among the seventeen mobile handset-makers and service-providers that are backing GSMA's announcement of a universal charging solution -UCS - based on the industry-standard Micro USB interface.

However, iPhone will not be compatible with the UCS, as it uses Apple's proprietary 30-pin Dock Connector to charges from and communicate with computers and accessories. And, it is highly improbable that Apple would add a second port to its sleek smartphone!

Nonetheless, other than the distinct advantage of charging standardization - that of the facility of charging several phones with one charger - the use of Micro USB is a cut above the existing flurry of proprietary charging systems.

From the global standpoint, the UCS is a step in the direction of environmental gains. The GSMA claims that the new chargers will be "up to three times more energy-efficient" as compared to presently-used chargers, and will need half the present standby power.

GSMA estimates the new charging standard to bring about 50 percent fall in the yearly production of new chargers, which will "reduce greenhouse gases in manufacturing and transporting replacement chargers by 13.6 to 21.8 million tonnes a year."