Kudos to Royal College of Art graduate Min-Kyu Choi who, reports Anna Bates of iconeye magazine, came up with a plug design that is the same width as a MacBook Air. Have you come across it?

Min-Kyu’s solution is ridiculously elegant. Here it is:

And that’s it.

Isn’t it smart?

Simple. Elegant. It’s pure Apple and it’s just 10mm wide. Of course Min-Kyu has got a whole raft of other modifications including a USB charger and multi-plug support.

As Min-Kyu explains in this video, the UK’s massive 3-pin design is a real arse when it comes to taking devices (laptops in particular) mobile.

Here’s a video showing the plug in use:

I really would like to see one of these arrive with my next new handset.

There’s more information at?http://www.minkyu.co.uk/.

Related posts:

1. How much is a Nokia charger in Carphone Warehouse?
2. Prisoner hides mobile charger up arse
3. Channel 4 goes for mobiles with DAB plug-in

Is the mobile marketing industry far too obsessed with smartphones? That’s the question I’ll be asking in a new video series coming soon to Mobile Industry Review in association with OpenMarket, the leading global mobile transaction hub.

In the wake of Clarityn’s apparent success at achieving 70,000 downloads of their iPhone pollen count application, I sat last week wondering on whether the resources that were deployed on that project could have been better spent reaching the whole marketplace.

The big problem with marketing types is that the iPhone (and to a lesser extent, many of the Android devices) are gorgeous. Imagery renders beautifully. The UI experience is elegant. It’s utterly simple to convince the CEO that it’s the right thing to do. I firmly believe that the new mantra in today’s mobile marketing industry is ‘nobody ever got shot for building an iPhone app.

It’s all well and good, but it’s ridiculously limiting. Clarityn’s team specifically deployed the app in the knowledge that it would only work for a very, very small segment of the United Kingdom. I suspect that the app was ‘just a test’. But what about ubiquity? What about accessing the whole market? It’s not as if the billboards I see around are only compatible with 32 year old males of Scottish descent. Everyone can ‘access’ them. Similarly with TV ads, the latest audi advert works on any television. Any. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a Samsung TV or a Sony.

So what’s going on with mobile marketing and mobile marketing budgets? Why does the market — at least from my vantage point — appear to be so obsessed with smartphones when their job should be reaching everyone? Is a ‘text campaign’ just too boring, nowadays? What about the huge segments of the population who are simply ignored by the latest iPhone gizmo that no doubt cost the brand a pretty penny to develop?

Well, I’m going to check this out.

Next week I’m taking the camera equipment to the IAB Engage for Mobile event in London. I’m going to produce a series of videos from there on the subject of The Smartphone Obsession asking this key question: “Has the mobile marketing industry become too focused on smartphones?”

If you’d like to participate, let me know (ewan@mobileindustryreview.com). I’m going to be filming all day at the event and I’m working out the schedule right now. I’m aiming to produce a 5-video series, with each episode featuring an thought leader.

Standby for more information soon!