This is what your next generation cellphone charging/syncing cable is going to look like. At CES 2010, the USB Implementers Forum announced that the first products to use their new USB 3.0 SuperSpeed spec are now available. Transfer rates on these bad boys are ten times what you’re used to (400 MB/s versus the traditional 40 MB/s). While most of the first USB SuperSpeed products are geared for the real data hogs of the technology world, like hard drives, laptops, and motherboards, silicon manufacturers (who cell phone makers go to for parts) are also getting their mitts on the new standard. Nokia is apparently very enthusiastic about the new format, and may be the first to properly implement USB 3.0. One of the beauties of including a USB 3.0 female port is that it will be backwards compatible with with older microUSB male plugs, and should be able to honour existing manufacturer standardization agreements.
Sure, the data speed increase is the big thing, but battery charging will be sped up as well – USB 3.0 works on 900 mAh, as opposed to 500 mAh in USB 2.0. Similar efficiencies have been made in the other direction as well, to ensure that less power is used with anything but a charger. So when will we actually see the new USB standard in mobiles? It’s mostly up to the cell phone manufacturers. A large bottleneck will be microSD card capacity, since only those phones with a lot of memory will really push for the necessity of SuperSpeed USB, and based on my meeting with the SD Association, it doesn’t sound like the micro format will be getting XC (32 GB – 2 TB) any time soon. In any case, the higher-end smartphones have generous on-board storage, and will probably be the first candidates to enjoy SuperSpeed. If you’re in the industry, you can find out more about USB 3.0 over here.