eli5: How did we go from every phone company having it’s own proprietary cable type, to having only 2?

Question

I remember it used to be that every cellphone company had their own different standard. One for Nokia, etc.
Now there are just 2/3. USB C, micro usb And lightning.
What prompted the change?

In: 9

Answer 1

This kind of standardization is an easy way to keep production costs down. Instead of designing my own socket, cable, and charger, I can use existing sockets, cables, and chargers. This saves design expenses, is cheaper due to mass production, and is something the customer is already familiar with (and they love that they can swap/reuse chargers from other phones). Big selling points!

Meanwhile, making your own charger at this point makes a phone more expensive and provides zero benefit (and a significant amount of negative aspects).