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Rezence wireless charging coming to devices next year, says Intel

Intel's Kirk Skaugen has stated that Rezence wireless charging will be integrated into laptops, keyboards, mice, and other devices beginning next year.

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Published onJune 3, 2015

The battle for the future wireless power standard has been a long and complicated one and the market is about to become a whole lot more competitive. The merger between the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) and the Power Matter Alliance (PMA) has become a done deal within the past 24 hours and Intel has confirmed that resonance charging compatible products will finally be heading our way next year.

Some big mobile names are part of the new consortium, including Samsung, Qualcomm, Intel, and MediaTek

Speaking at Computex, Intel’s Kirk Skaugen stated that Rezence wireless charging will be integrated into laptops, keyboards, mice, and other devices beginning next year. Although the laptop market looks set to see the technology first, Skaugen also expects to see resonance-enabled accessories for smartphone next year as well and future mobile devices using its Atom x3 processor line will also include wireless charging.

As a quick recap, Rezence is the standard for resonance charging being promoted by the A4WP. Inductive charging is currently the only technology in the gadget market, supported by the Qi and PWA standards. Although based on the same principle, resonance and inductive charging are quite different when it comes to user cases. While inductive charging allows for single device charging at short distance, resonance charging can be used with multiple devices over slightly longer ranges.

The merger between A4WP and PMA means that the two groups will be sharing and exchanging technologies and ideas. Some big mobile names are part of the new consortium, including Samsung, Qualcomm, Intel, and MediaTek, giving the group some substantial clout.

Intel has been sharing its vision for wireless charging products and workstations for quite some time now. Intel will be teaming up with A4WP members Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) and Basecom and manufacturers BYD, Primax and Kokuyo to help push the Rezence charging technology to market in products next year. The video below is from Computex 2014, but serves as a good example of the products that may be heading to market in 2016.

Even last year the company showcased a PC, phone and tablet that were wirelessly powered through a table, and has been working on wireless display transmission technologies for TVs and monitors too, so future PC setups can completely do away with cables. The company seems to believe that all cables, and not just those used for power, will be obsolete in the future.

We are about to enter a more competitive, and possibly transitional, stage between inductive and resonance standards

Going back to wireless power, WiTricity, a member of the A4WP, announced its Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) partner program last year also, with the aim of making it easier for other companies to incorporate Rezence specified wireless charging standards into their products. By providing development kits and better access to the technology, we will hopefully see a wider range of supported products in the future and not just from Intel.

We are about to enter a more competitive, and possibly transitional, stage between inductive and resonance standards. You can read more about the differences between the two technologies here.