Credit: Shutterstock photoCords are stubborn. Bluetooth has made auxiliary cords unnecessary in some late-model cars. Wifi allows us to roam around with our laptops, tablets and phones, to an extent. But when it comes to charging batteries, the same lengths of copper we’ve used to transmit power for a century are still the standard—though thankfully we’ve ditched the asbestos insulation.
Inductive charging
Not everyone is content with this tangled status quo, however. The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) was founded in 2008 to promote a wireless charging standard they call Qi (pronounced “chee,” the traditional Chinese concept of vital energy). Eddy Odijk, Vice President of Standardization at WPC member company Philips (PHG), compared Qi to Wifi and USB. The idea is to promote a single, standardized technology and make wireless charging ubiquitous by avoiding “market fragmentation.”
The idea that “any device should work with any charger” is certainly compelling, and perusing the WPC’s roster provides a measure of confidence that the group could pull it off. Major players in tech hardware are represented: Microsoft (MSFT), Samsung, Texas Instruments (TXN), LG, Huawei, Sony (SNE), Toshiba—the list goes on.
Then again, Apple (AAPL) is conspicuously absent. And two rival organizations, the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) and the Power Matters Alliance (PMA), announced a merger at the beginning of June. The merged super-acronym A4WP-PMA—they will have a real name later this year—includes AT&T (T), Intel (INTC), P&G (PG), Starbucks (SBUX), Qualcomm (QCOM), Broadcom (BRCM) and Samsung. The last three are also members of the WPC.
For all the big-name corporate backing these wireless charging technologies enjoy, they’re not all that exciting. Qi and A4WP-PMA’s rival Powermat technology use inductive charging, aka plopping your device down a charging pad. No wires, so that’s nifty, but if your phones strays more than a few centimeters from the pad, it’s lost connection. And if you’re like the majority of consumers and don’t have one of these models, you’ll need an extra component to make your phone compatible.
The "standards battle"
No doubt wide adoption of one or the other of these technologies could be a huge convenience-booster. Today, arriving at a hotel to realize you’ve forgotten your charger induces despair. Perhaps tomorrow you’ll be able to just set your phone down on the night stand. The same goes for restaurants, malls, airports, sports stadiums and your car—or at least that’s the plan. Ikea is selling Qi-equipped furniture—along with the requisite adapter cases. McDonald’s has introduced Qi charging stations in the UK and tested the concept across Europe.
Meanwhile the A4WP-PMA has installed its rival Powermat technology in Starbucks in LA, the Bay area, London, New York City and Boston; a few Manhattan McDonald’s locations; and Delta’s (DAL) Sky Club lounges at LaGuardia and JFK.
This “standards battle” is happening largely out of the public eye, but Starbuck’s decision to side with Powermat may be bad news for Qi. As re/code’s Ina Fried points out, public Wifi became ubiquitous only after Starbucks adopted it. Perhaps they could give Powermat a similar boost in popularity.
But is this really what we expect from the end of the power cord? To be bound even more closely to a given spot? Some companies hope to perfect wireless charging at a distance, making charging as easy and untethered as accessing Wifi.
Wireless charging at a distance
There are already variety of invisible waves sloshing around our population centers. The idea behind wireless charging at a distance is to allow electricity to hitch a ride on—or temporarily become—one of them.
As Fast Company notes, a breakthrough in this area implies a lot more than convenient cell-phone charging. Medical devices could be recharged remotely, avoiding the need for surgery to replace the battery. Sensors could be tucked behind walls, whirring away without ever needing to be accessed again, making the Internet of Things that much more viable.
Ossia
Ossia has developed a technology it calls Cota, which uses the bluetooth and Wifi spectrum, though not an actual Wifi router, to charge at distances of up to thirty feet. Ossia hopes to license its U.S., Japanese and South Korean patents to companies in the consumer, retail, industrial and healthcare sectors. It recently raised $10 million in a round led by Japanese telecom provider KDDI. The company’s conversion chip is reportedly small enough to incorporate directly into a battery, and the transmitter can power multiple devices at once.
Energous
Energous (WATT) is unique among the companies in this space in being publicly traded. It uses radio frequency signals in the Wifi spectrum to charge devices requiring less than 10 watts, at distances of up to 15 feet. Like Ossia, its business model is to license intellectual property rights to partners.
WiTricity
MIT spin-off WiTricity is pursuing a different route to wireless charging: magnetic resonance. CEO Alex Gruzen compares the technology to opera singer’s ability to shatter a wine glass by finding its resonant frequency; that too involves “transferring energy over a distance,” but rather than sound, WiTricity uses magnetism.
The company has partnered with A4PWP to establish a magnetic resonance standard, called Rezence, analogous to its rival’s Qi induction standard. Toyota (TM) was an early investor in WiTricity, so in addition to the usual focus on smartphones, the company is pursuing ways to charge electric car wirelessly. The two firms announced a partnership in 2013.
uBeam
The opera singer metaphor is more apt for uBeam, which uses ultrasound to transmit power. The company may be worth $500 million, and is rumored to be in talks with Starbucks, Virgin America (VA), Starwood Hotels (HOT) and perhaps Apple and Samsung. There is at least one drawback to uBeam’s technology, though: unlike Cota, it cannot transmit through walls.
“I don’t trust you, and it can’t be safe”
While wireless charging at a distance is an appealing concept, many have expressed a healthy skepticism about shooting electrical charges through the air.
HBO’s Silicon Valley recently poked fun at some entrepreneurs’ blatant disregard for common sense. The “Human Heater,” an entrant in the show’s fictional rendition of TechCrunch Disrupt, heated the skin directly using microwaves, cutting down—its founder claimed—on energy costs, reducing emissions and “thereby making the world a better place.”
One judge’s response just about sums up the appropriate reaction: “I don’t trust you, and it can’t be safe.”
Should we be similarly wary of wireless charging at a distance? uBeam uses ultrasound, which we trust around pregnant mothers and their unborn children, so that's either fine or we have bigger problems. WiTricity’s CEO demonstrated the company’s magnetic resonance power by beaming it right through his skull, which inspires some admiration, if not total confidence.
Both WiTricity and Ossia use directed energy that finds paths between the transmitter and the receiver. According to Ossia, Cota's charge automatically avoids people and pets, making it "inherently safe." In fact, part of Ossia’s pitch is that Cota will improve, not compromise safety: oil and gas companies, for whom a single ill-timed spark can cost many lives and billions of dollars, could eliminate the hazards caused by physical wiring.
Energous, on the other hand, radiates power in all directions, similar to how a Wifi signal works; it claims the signals are safe because they are in a weak frequency.
For now, consumers have a choice of whether or not to be guinea pigs for these technologies. Soon enough, however, we may encounter them any time we walk into a coffee shop, garage, stadium, hotel room, airplane, restaurant—you get the picture.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
