Wireless charging rivals the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) and the Power Matters Alliance (PMA) agree that its time to cut the cord. The two companies announced that from now on, they will work together, bringing the world one step closer to a universal wireless charging standard.
The wireless charging industry is severely fragmented, with rival groups all vying to make their standard, the standard. Ironically, doing so has only served to splinter the industry and dissuade manufacturers from investing in wireless charging technology. As a result, very few smartphones have wireless charging technology incorporated into their designs and even fewer tablets have the technology.
However, it seems that the big players in wireless charging are finally starting to see sense. If they want to convince Apple, Samsung and other big-name mobile device manufacturers to commit to wireless charging, they will have to create a universal standard. Slowly, but surely, the groups have begun to come together.
In 2012, Qualcomm and Samsung paired up to consolidate their two standards and several other smaller groups joined them to form the A4WP. Now PMA has joined up with the A4WP. The last big group in wireless charging to join the fray is the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), the group responsible for Qi charging, which is found on Nokia smartphones and a few Google Nexus devices. It is unknown whether the WPC will join in on the agreement, but leaders in the field are optimistic that things are about to change.
"We believe that companies that have been evaluating and hesitating to integrate wireless charging into their consumer electronics products will now have a reason to go forward," said Kamil Grajski, president of the A4WP and Qualcomm executive.
Although A4WP and PMA have agreed to play nice, they haven't consolidated their two very different wireless charging standards into one common standard yet. A4WP's Rezence standard relies on a brand-new magnetic resonance technology, while PMA and WPC use inductive charging. A4WP's standard isn't yet available for the mass market, but PMA and WPC's inductive wireless charging technology is already used in the real world.
The big players in the industry all seem to hesitantly agree that there should be a universal wireless charging standard, it's just getting them all to agree on one that is the problem. Many consumers eagerly await the industry's consolidation because it will mean an end to annoying cords and tangled wires. Wireless charging is a great idea; one that will change the mobile industry. At least that's something everyone can agree on.
