AirFuel Looks To Create Umbrella Brand for Wireless Charging Tech
The wireless charging industry was stifled by three competing industry organizations, a situation the AirFuel Alliance is looking to eclipse with an all-inclusive strategy encompassing all flavors of wireless charging, AirFuel Alliance President Ron Resnick told us. AirFuel, the new…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
name announced Tuesday (see 1511030038) replaces the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) and Power Matters Alliance (PMA), which merged in June (see 1506010046). The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), meanwhile, remains committed to the competing Qi standard. The AirFuel alliance envisions a “seamless, interoperable global infrastructure” that includes a public charging infrastructure for places including coffee shops and airports. For a wireless charging ecosystem to take hold, “you have to be able charge your devices in public wherever you go,” Resnick said. A working group within the alliance is focusing on public charging solutions, but Resnick conceded that venues such as airports won’t commit to wireless charging until, and if, Apple stamps its seal on a technology. "That's why they're holding back," he said. IHS released a brief analysis Wednesday, after the announcement of the AirFuel Alliance, saying it “shows their commitment to simplifying the wireless power landscape for the consumer” by “reducing the number of brand names and logos on products.” But the alliance hasn’t addressed the issue that the existing PMA and A4WP standards “are not interoperable” because they work on “completely different frequencies,” said analyst David Green. The alliance hasn’t said “how they might differentiate between these standards for existing products or any future design” that doesn’t cover both standards, said Green.