The ever-changing landscape of Qi charging and its widespread applications leads us to believe that the future belongs not only to those who put the hours in better understanding the technology but also to those who possess the good sense to make capital investments in its inevitable progress.
Whenever a new milestone is reached in the development of new technologies, chances are that it will be included in some of the newly released devices. Judging by how often people change their phones nowadays, they are almost guaranteed to make use of said technology soon after its initial release.
When talking about wireless charging as a whole, we have to understand thatwireless charging infrastructure is constantly evolving at a macro level just as fast as it does on an applicational basis. To be more precise, we see wireless charging components become part of the furniture, outdoor installations, automotive dashboards, and even as part of larger appliances.
Now, it’s quite obvious that outfitting a piece of furniture with a Qi charger is less demanding than having it built into the dashboard of a vehicle. The bigger picture here is the willingness to do so and the allocation of resources for this particular purpose. We see that it isn’t just tech companies that divert resources toward implementing wireless charging systems but automotive manufacturers and independent investors as well.
The reason why this is important is because having seamless wireless charging systems available in public places is much more useful than having access to the technology at home. If anything, the implementation of such systems in public places is sure to vastly improve the availability of similar technologies and to make wireless charging more accessible on the go.
In a world that’s constantly changing and evolving, having groundbreaking technologies available to us at all times is a sign that things are getting better overall, and not just in regard to mobile devices. That said, we can see why restaurant tables with inbuilt wireless chargers may never equal stand-alone charging stations.
A matter of accessibility
Looking at how the wireless charging ecosystem has changed over these past few years, it’s fair to say that most progress is made when user expectations align with realistic technological milestones. In other words, it’s much safer to expect that your phone charges at a steady (yet reduced) speed via wireless induction rather than constantly complain that wired chargers are faster.
Like everything else in life, realistic expectations will save you an awful lot of trouble in the long run, especially when it comes to wireless technologies which don’t always improve the way users expect them to.
Seeing howmost wireless charging infrastructure improves according to the devices that make use of it, we should probably wait and see what phone manufacturers have in store before we get any expectations regarding wireless chargers.
Although users can easily charge their devices at home with any of the many Qi chargers available on the market, it becomes a matter of accessibility for them to be able to do so on the go. If anything, an accommodating public wireless charging system has a much higher impact on consumer awareness and satisfaction.
Furthermore, it is plainly obvious that users rarely concern themselves with the different wireless charging standards and their requirements. As far as many people are concerned, wireless charging is a one-size-fits-all type of technology and no one can tell them otherwise. It is perhaps for this reason that when advancing wireless charging infrastructure, business owners would do well to have multiple charging standards on hand for easy deployment.
Progress is slow but certain
Bear in mind that manufacturers have no desire to produce the devices until users start actively demanding them. So as far as multi-standard wireless chargeable devices go, a more realistic expectation would be to focus on whichever charging standard is more popular at the time. As things stand, the Qi standard dominates by virtue of its accessibility and versatility, but this may someday change.
The argument against an eventual switch from Qi to a whole new standard is the fact that there hasn’t been a major infrastructural investment in wireless charging so far. Up until quite recently, most of the development work has been done by manufacturers and sometimes third parties with a vested interest in seeing the technology thrive.
It needs to be said that the current inductive standards are more than convenient albeit slow and somewhat fickle. At the same time, they appear to be limited to small devices and show few signs that they’ll ever reach the same charging speeds that traditional chargers would deliver.
In a way, this both restricts the further development of Qi charging as a standard while also ensuring that it stays the de-facto international standard for years to come.
You need to understand that forwireless charging infrastructure to change dramatically in the coming years, a shift would have to occur with regard to manufacturer preference and user requirements. Seeing how far-fetched such a possibility is at the moment, you can probably rest assured that the Qi standard is here to stay.
Having said that, know that the newly formed AirFuel does pose a bit of a threat to Qi, but then again this isn’t the first time an attempt was made to come up with a faster, more reliable way to handle inductive charging. Furthermore, smaller devices like smartwatches and wearables may very well use NFC for their wireless charging needs, but this is neither here nor there.
All things considered, big players in the industry are already developing proprietary high-power wireless chargers of their own. If not to subvert the current standards then to at least stimulate their further development.
These chargers are likely to become more compact and portable while increasing output to a degree where they might very well be used to charge laptops or power-hungry household appliances.
