Two major rival wireless charging groups join forces to accelerate adoption

Wireless charging has constantly fallen short of making its major market breakthrough. Various developers have dipped their toes in the water, but very few have made a long term commitment to include the technology in all of their products. Part of the problem is that no-one is quite sure about the best wireless charging technology to pick. However, that choice could soon be made for them, as two of the largest wireless charging groups have signed a letter of intent to merge.

The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), which backs magnetic resonance charging technology, and the Power Matter Alliance (PMA), which maintains a standard based on inductive charging, are looking to create a unified organization, which will be named later this year, with the aim to help push this promising technology to mass-market.

As the two groups base their standards on two different methods of wireless charging, the merged group expects that future smartphones and other devices may incorporate both technology types. This has the benefit that users will be able to power up their device on a range of chargers, but might add considerable costs to product manufacturing.

However, this merger currently leaves one of the biggest technologies out of the talks. The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), which consists of over 200 members, including Microsoft and Qualcomm, owns the Qi charging standard, which has already seen use in a number of Android handsets. Talks to form a super group consisting of all three members are apparently on the cards. John Perzow from the WPC suggested that a deal with the other groups is “inevitable” based on past statements from its competitors.

With many of the big names now all working together, wireless charging may finally break into mainstream technology.