Will there ever be universal mobile phone connectors and chargers? Do you recall two or three years ago, mobile phone chargers were going to be universal, in other words you would only need one charger for any phone? Was I imagining it, or is it not going to happen? Bob Lovett, Earles Colne, Essex This dates back to 2009 when, in an attempt to reduce the growing problem of electronic waste, the European Commission, International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and a number of leading manufacturers came up with an initiative called the Common External Power Supply or EPS. It uses the now familiar Micro USB connector format and is now widely used on almost all smartphones, tablet PCs, e-book readers and numerous digital devices made in the past couple of years. By and large it has been quite successful; however, there have been some holdouts, most notably Apple. It initially signed up for EPS but has decided to stay with its proprietary 30-pin Dock, and now the new Lightning Dock connector, used on iPhone 5 and most future products. You can get Micro USB to 30-pin Dock and Micro USB to Lightning Dock adaptors for charging, but Apple's famously controlling attitude means it is unlikely that it will adopt the EPS standard any time soon.