The implementation of an industry-wide standard for a mobile phone charger by 2012 is what GSMA is planning for. And it won't be wrong to say that it comes as good news; however, standardizing power supplies across the full spectrum of consumer electronic products still requires aggressive action.

Paul Panepinto, sales and marketing chief at San Ramon, California-based Green Plug, reported, "We've been at this for three years, evangelizing the need for interoperable power supplies. Without a doubt, things need to happen more quickly. It personally offends me that the average user [of CE products] throws away 300 power adapters in their lifetime."

On Tuesday, it was confirmed by the industry group at the GSMA's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, that 17 of its members have given their approval to a universal charging solution (UCS) for mobile phones based around Micro-USB as the charging interface.

Panepinto reported, "Green Plug, manufacturer of a universal connector that pairs any electronic device with any power supply, hopes the GMSA and bodies like the Open Handset Alliance will call for similar standards for other devices -- from printers to cordless power tools."

The company has also taken under consideration the latest studies, which discovered 3.2 billion new power supplies being manufactured worldwide in 2008 even as some two billion older ones were going into landfill.

Panepinto is even expecting that Green Plug can secure a big-name vendor win for its GreenTalk protocol in order to achieve more standardization like Tuesday's GSMA initiative.