The Consumer Has Spoken: Recharging Devices With Cables or Wires Is A Hassle

Consumers believe that charging wireless devices with a cord or cable remains a real inconvenience, but they also believe help may be on the way soon. According to the latest independent consumer survey conducted by the AirFuel™ Alliance, 93% of consumers say that the technology to wirelessly charge devices will be a reality in the next three years. (Please click here to download the survey).In fact, that solution - PowerSphyr's next-generation wireless charging system called SkyCurrent™ - is coming to market later this year, but more on that later.

A Less Tangled Future

Many consumers (myself included) are underwhelmed by the current contact-based, slow-charging systems of some Android devices. Others are holding their breath to see if Apple can make Steve Jobs’ dream of an all-glass phone a reality in the iPhone 8. For other mobile phone makers, their ambitions are much less. Simply doing away with the various types of connectors will be the path to a less tangled future.While the device manufacturers sort it out, the wireless power industry needs to do the same. Truth is, there are multiple ways of delivering power wirelessly. No one single solution is best-in-class for all devices across all applications. Yet, the industry seems stuck in the old ways of thinking and insists that one technology or method can solve the problem.

Different Power Demands

It’s by no means rocket science to conclude that different electronic devices have entirely different power requirements. A fitness tracker or Bluetooth earbud (AirPod?) consumes comparatively lower amounts of power versus a smartphone, a tablet or an electronic vehicle. It’s also easy to see that consumers value spatial freedom as one of the primary reasons to be untethered. However, transmitting high levels of radiative energy useful for fast-charging a laptop or television across the room simply isn’t commercially viable, or safe.But what about the option of a safer, lower power trickle-charge across the room? Many low energy devices available today can already benefit from a safe, steady stream of energy transferred, let alone as devices in general become more energy efficient. In time, more and more applications will become sustainable by fewer watts safely transferred over distance, and then the electronic world (IoT) will blossom while the possibilities literally become endless.But in the meantime, if there could be one solution which offers the best of both low energy power over distance along with wireless fast-charging, wouldn't you grab it?That solution is called SkyCurrent, and it is coming soon.