Will it be long before wireless charging chips are built-in all smart devices, armrests, bedside tables, cars, medical and military devices?

No, it’s already happening…

The technology exists, and lets face it it’s modern, its convenient and its pretty darn cool so how come it’s not taken off yet? Presently there is a competitive standoff between two wireless charging standards:

Power Matters Alliance (PMA)
and
Qi (Wireless Power Consortium)

Both these technologies embrace wireless charging with some effort on your part; it involves placing your device on a charging matt to transfer the charge inductively, like an electric toothbrush.

Both standards have the support of some huge influencing brands. Samsung, Intel, at&t and P&G rally behind PMA whereas Nokia, Philips, Facebook, Google and Verizon are backing Qi.  The competition is fast filtering down into dominating retail brands; in the US Starbucks is installing PMA wireless charging benches into some of its stores and McDonalds in the UK is installing Qi wireless charging spots.

So what’s holding back this life changing technology? To give you a clue, Apple have not yet embedded wireless chips into any of their devices, and as global dominators, this has great impact on the success of the technology.

To further muddy the waters, two truly wireless charging technologies (like WiFi) have entered the market; Energous with WattUp technology and Ossia’s Cota technology. Both offer groundbreaking tech that deliver safe and efficient energy over the air to charge devices with no interaction from you. No wires, no cables, no matts, its truly mobile, truly wire-free and true power management. Via a transmitter and a receiver energy is sent using radio frequency signal charging your devices automatically in your pocket.

So what’s the but? At present the technology is expensive, the range is short (5m) and currently an external receiver (adapter) is required for each device to charge wirelessly.

BUT as the technology becomes more robust and commonplace it will undoubtedly scale up, and fast. Experts anticipate the shift from wasteful batteries to wireless charging to be a reality within 2 years.

So for now the race to the podium continues as the technology market evolves into a wireless existence. This battle is certainly one to watch.

Technovation is a lover of the continued correlation between technology advancement and convenience & efficiency, and therefore we’ll be keeping a watchful eye on this marketplace to bring you the best in wireless charging devices and perhaps the necessary adapters to ensure the old and the new play nice.

For now, check out our neat Qi enabled 3137 Inkslab – a must for those tech lovers amongst us.

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