We heard late last year that RIM had joined the Wireless Power Consortium and their Qi wireless charging standard. That standard is ready according to the Consortium and is now off to interoperability testing. That means that wireless charging just got one step closer to your BlackBerry.
There are quite a few big names standing behind this standard so it looks like it will actually make it off the ground. I cannot wait until every hotel has a wireless charger hooked up right by the bed. 🙂 I am not sure how PowerMat and WildCharge will respond to this new standard but it looks like they might just have to adapt. I am also really hoping this new Qi standard will cut down on bulk that plagued PowerMat and WildCharge.
As we said before the Qi standard is based on magnetic induction and works within a few millimeters. It can provide up to 5 watts of power with 70% efficiency and standby power of 0.0001 watts. That is pretty decent and they are planning a higher power version in the future. The only downside is that current BlackBerry wall chargers charge at almost 3 times that wattage so hopefully the higher power version come soon. 5W is about the power put out by a computer USB charger if you want to compare.
Check out the full details on the new Qi standard at www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com
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