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For years now we’ve had two main players when it came to wireless charging Powermat and Qi. The competing technologies were a pain in the butt at first for consumers looking to invest into the technology, but luckily manufacturers like Samsung had the common sense to make their devices compatible with both.
While Qi quickly rose in dominance, that still wasn’t enough to break Powermat who partnered up with businesses like Starbucks to include wireless charging pucks in some of their locations, built right into the furniture. That was pretty much the last we heard of Powermat but after all these years, it looks like they’re finally ready to admit defeat and join Qi in the Wireless Power Consortium’s circle. Powermat said in a statement:
“Qi has become the dominant wireless charging standard on the market and the recently launched Apple iPhone lineup is evidence of this success. [We] will share technology innovation to further unlock wireless charging potential, and will expedite the growth of the wireless charging infrastructure.”
The final nail in the coffin? Well, probably Apple going with Qi in this year’s iPhones. When Apple adopts a new technology, it quickly becomes ubiquitous (just look at NFC payments which you can almost everywhere these days). In either case, it’s consumers that are the winner here. Hopefully we’ll see a resurgence of the tech now that everyone’s on the same page (you listening, Google?).
via Powermat | Image credit: Pocket-Lint
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