USB 3.0 has been on the market for some time, but for now only some manufacturers of components for PCs and laptops have rushed to implement it in their own products. Even so, in 2012 USB 3.0 will arrive in smartphones and tablets in the form of microUSB ports, but probably Apple will find a way to implement the standard in its iDevices as well. Through USB 3.0 technology, transfer speeds will increase up to 800 Mbps for mobile terminals, but we are talking about a speed almost 6 times lower than that which computers can achieve.
USB 3.0 ports will reach smartphones and tablets by the end of the year or early next year, the USB standards setting organization said on Sunday. Smartphones and tablets will likely get a MicroUSB port based on USB 3.0 technology to fit the small size of the devices, said Rahman Ismail, chief technology officer of the USB Implementers Forum during the CES trade show in Las Vegas. The ports will enable faster data transfer between mobile devices and host devices such as PCs, some of which already have USB 3.0 ports. The data transfer rates will likely be 100 megabytes per second, or roughly 800 megabits per second (Mbps). Mobile devices currently use the older USB 2.0 technology, which is slower.
"What takes 15 minutes will roughly take 1 minute and 10 seconds," Ismail said.
In addition to the already obvious bonus in terms of data transfer speed, USB 3.0 also brings shorter charging times because the new standard allows a faster transfer of energy. It is not yet known which will be the first products to incorporate USB 3.0, but at CES 2012 we should see them presented by their manufacturers.
