A cellphone charger that will work for almost all your phones is coming. But not for Apple products, and not until 2012.

Here's how the the press release (Mobile Industry Unites to Drive Universal Charging Solution for Mobile Phones) from Global System for Mobile (communications) Association starts:

The GSMA and 17 leading mobile operators and manufacturers today announced that they are committed to implementing a cross-industry standard for a universal charger for new mobile phones. The aim of the initiative, led by the GSMA, is to ensure that the mobile industry adopts a common format for mobile phone charger connections and energy-efficient chargers resulting in an estimated 50 per cent reduction in standby energy consumption, the potential elimination of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers1 and the enhancement of the customer experience by simplifying the charging of mobile phones...

The group has set an ambitious target that by 2012 a universal charging solution (UCS) will be widely available in the market worldwide and will use Micro-USB as the common universal charging interface.

Apple absent from universal phone charger push at Apple Insider.

Wired (Mobile Industry (Minus Apple) Embraces Universal Phone Charger) is running a poll: What do you think Apple should do? Vote in the poll below.

Geeky takes, at Slashdot, where the copious comments are: The first comment Handset Vendors Plug Micro-USB Charge Ports asks. " I wonder how Apple will feel about this? Will they finally realize that their oh-so-special adapter is nothing more than a fudged USB interface?"

The first commenter asks why he needs to install a (branded) driver for this, since he has USB on his computer.

The answer, further down in the thread: "Because that when the device is not identified by the OS, the power output is capped to 100mA. When identified, it can go up to 500mA." ... About charging slowly... Ah, but there are ways around that...

/. is interesting when I understand enough of what they're talking about.