Friday, November 16, 2012

Wireless charging blazes path toward mainstream


Heavyweights are backing the idea of wireless charging capabilities embedded in phones, and public charging stations are beginning to pop up. Differing standards, however, still make for a rocky adoption.



The Droid DNA is the latest smartphone with wireless charging built in.


(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)


The ability to charge a smartphone by simply placing it on a tabletop has been around for a while, but it’s more of a novelty, for early adopters and gadget buffs.


Wireless charging cases, back covers, and pads are out in the market, and the Palm Prememorably championed its Touchstone charging stand a while back, but the options are either too complicated, expensive, or, in the case of the Pre, not popular enough to really resonate with consumers.


That’s poised to change over the next year, with momentum and a lot of big-name companies behind the idea. The wireless charging push could change the way consumers use their smartphones, and may go a long way toward alleviating the stress many power users feel when a low-battery warning signal pops up on their mobile device.


 


“For sure, we are getting closer to mainstream, and only really recently,” said Jason dePreaux, an analyst for research firm IHS.


At the same time, a number of different alliances, with competing standards for wireless power, threaten to bog down the adoption and potentially confuse consumers.


Earlier this week, Verizon Wireless and HTC unveiled the Droid DNA, the latest smartphone to get wireless charging built into the phone, following other high-profile devices such as Nokia’sLumia 920 and LG’s Nexus 4.


Wireless charging is a big initiative for Verizon Wireless, according to Jeff Dietel, vice president of wireless devices for the nation’s largest carrier. In an interview with CNET, Dietel said the carrier is pushing to get the feature into many more devices next year. An example is the Droid DNA; HTC confirmed that it added wireless charging at Verizon’s request.


Wireless charging stations, meanwhile, are beginning to proliferate, albeit slowly. Powermat, part of Duracell and Proctor & Gamble, has a trial to get wireless charging pads installed in Starbucks in Boston, and CEO Ran Poliakine told CNET he plans to expand nationwide next year. Earlier this week, Powermat showed off hundreds of “Powerzones” with wireless charging pads installed in the newly renovated Madison Square Garden.


 



The Knicks are the newest fans of wireless charging, with Madison Square Garden now featuring several hundred wireless charging spots in the arena.

(Credit: Roger Cheng/CNET)



 


When Nokia unveiled its new Lumia smartphones in September, the company said it had partnered with Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to get wireless charging stations in the coffee chain’s locations, as well as with Virgin Atlantic to get them in airport lounges, starting with the executive lounge at Heathrow Airport in London.


The wireless charging business is still in its infancy, but industry observers see a lot of potential. Roughly 5 million devices were sold this year with wireless charging, but that number could grow to 100 million by 2015, according to an IHS study. At that point, the market for different accessories and wireless power chips could be worth $4 billion, the firm said.


More importantly, a world where charging stations are commonly available is a world where people can truly go unplugged, with power users no longer feeling the pressure to seek the closest outlet.


“People should be able to get through the day without battery anxiety,” Polaikine said.


Conflicting standards 
As with many emerging technologies (think Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD), wireless charging has many different champions, all with their own vision of how the feature should work.


The recent smartphones that have come out all use a standard called Qi, run by the Wireless Power Consortium, whose members include Verizon and many of the handset manufacturers. Verizon had also pushed to get Qi into the LG Spectrum 2 and HTC’s Windows Phone 8X.


Powermat, meanwhile, is part of a rival standard called the Power Matters Alliance, which boasts heavy hitters such as Google, AT&T, General Motors, and Starbucks as members.


Polaikine told CNET he expects to go national with charging stations in Starbucks next year, and added that he believes AT&T will start to push handset manufacturers to add a compatible wireless charging capability into its phones next year.


AT&T, for its part, acknowledged its membership in the PMA but declined to discuss its plans. However, one of the carrier’s flagship phones this holiday season is the Lumia 920, which runs on the incompatible Qi standard.


The contradictory lineup highlights what could potentially be a confusing scenario for consumers: a Lumia 920 user looking for a quick charge at Starbucks will be out of luck.


While the implementation is different, the underlying technology is the same and has been on the market for a while — electric toothbrushes have long used wireless charging in their docks.


Waiting in the wings are at least two other major standards: one being pushed by a recently formed group called the A4WP (Alliance for Wireless Power), backed by Qualcomm and Samsung, and a separate standard backed by Intel focused on using laptops as a wireless charger for mobile devices.


Neither initiative is on the market yet, but industry observers believe A4WP has enough clout to make noise in this area, given the strong participation of the world’s largest handset manufacturer and mobile-chip maker. Hedging its bets, Samsung is also a member of the WPC.


A4WP, for its part, positions itself as a next-generation standard that will be the successor to the wireless charging options on the market now. That’s because the technology allows for more flexibility — devices don’t have to be perfectly aligned, the stations can handle multiple devices with differing voltage requirements, and the stations themselves can be designed in more flexible ways.


The rhetoric from the various groups, unsurprisingly, is full of bluster and shots at the competitors.



Wireless charging blazes path toward mainstream

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