The European cellphone market, led by the European Commission, has adopted  Micro-USB as the standard for cellphone charging/sync ports. We first made mention of this movement back during the 2009 Mobile World Congress and it appears the movement has picked up a little steam.

Cellphone manufacturers including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Apple, Motorola, NEC, LG, RIM, Qualcomm, Samsung and Texas Instruments support the standardization.  The surprising name on this list has to be Apple because of its long-standing and widely used licensed, proprietary connector.  The most noticeable company missing from the list is HTC, which uses the mini-USB port.

The standardization should be an across-the-board savings from reducing production costs, eliminating everyone's drawer full of chargers, and reducing waste at the local landfill.  The first devices under the new standard should hit the shelves in 2010, eventually leading to devices and chargers sold separately.

Now if we can only get that pesky 3.5mm headphone jack as standard.

Via SlashGear