Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

Qualcomm Now Has a Foot in All the Wireless Charging Camps

Qualcomm, which has been a major backer of the Alliance for Wireless Power, is now also taking part in two rival wireless-charging-standards efforts.

On Friday, the company announced that it had joined the Wireless Power Consortium board of management, and the company confirmed on Tuesday that it had also joined the Power Matters Alliance, where it will co-chair a resonant-power working group.

Qualcomm said that both the WPC and PMA have announced plans to move toward the kind of resonant or loosely coupled wireless power similar to Qualcomm’s WiPower.

“By joining, Qualcomm can bring its expertise in resonant wireless power to bear and to look toward harmonization across wireless power standards,” Qualcomm said in a statement to AllThingsD. “It is Qualcomm’s belief that the other entities can leverage the work in resonant wireless charging that has been completed by the Alliance for Wireless Power.”

Each of the three wireless-charging groups has a somewhat different take on wireless charging, as well as their own slate of backers, though there is also some overlap in membership. The WPC and its Qi brand have the lead when it comes to devices shipped, while the Power Matters group has won backing from companies such as Starbucks, which is testing the technology in Silicon Valley.

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

First the NSA came for, well, jeez pretty much everybody’s data at this point, and I said nothing because wait how does this joke work

— Parker Higgins via Twitter