End in sight for wireless power standards war as field shrinks to two

Power Matters Alliance

S'funny how they're called power matters, but they're pushing tech that fritters away 30% of the power at the DC adapter, and then another 40% at the wireless charging bridge.

Or is it just me?

Steven R

Field shrinks to two

Or more accurately, field remains at one. Most of the Airfuel Alliance's "compatible devices" are Samsung products which are compatible with both. Qi remains the only standard that any significant number of consumers have actually used deliberately. Which is a bit of a shame really, since long ranged simultaneous charging of multiple devices would be really nice, but while A4WP and PMA have spent most of their time fucking around with working groups and arguing about what to call themselves, WPC have put actual useful working products in the hands of consumers. Maybe in a few years we'll see some actual competition, but by then it may well be too late.

So we need wireless charging in our desks to power our Intel laptops that advertise "all day" battery life anyway?

I don't carry cables with me anyway. I have enough spare micro-usb cables to leave some at work, and the phone lasts a day or two without charging anyway. If I had a laptop I used at work, I'd get work to buy me a home charger as well as the work charger (and ultimately this will be solved with USB Type C charging too).

So unless you need a 100% sealed device or a device that can't accomodate a charger socket (Smartwatches), wireless charging is still a gimmick in my mind. On the other hand, at least they might get to the point of having a single standard for power delivery, even if it throws away a lot of power just to do its thing.