In public Apple has never had many positive words to say about the state of wireless phone charging, but a patent filed by the company and published this week suggests that its engineers are busy working on possible cable-free solutions.
As Patently Apple reports, the document deals mainly with the best ways of polishing and brushing metal, but there is a mention of an inductive charging station as one device where these techniques could potentially be used.
Inductive charging – available in phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 – uses two coils (a transmitter and a receiver) to transfer power using the magic of magnetic fields. This is the same kind of technology mentioned by Apple.
Down to the wires
It’s worth bearing in mind that patents can only give us clues about what tech firms are experimenting with, and Apple may well ditch the idea before it makes it into the iPhone – it’s filed numerous patents on wireless charging in the past, after all.
But it does give us a hint that the company is still thinking about ways to replace the traditional charging cord on the iPhone. There’s a form of inductive charging in the Apple Watch so presumably it wouldn’t be too much of a leap to include it in Apple’s phones too.
It was one of the rumoured features for the iPhone 7 – supposedly Apple has tech that works across a bigger distance than its rivals. In fact with the iPhone 7 now out in the wild, we’d like to get the iPhone 8 rumours started nice and early: wireless charging. And you heard it here (almost) first.
Check out our hands-on review of the new iPhone:
Source: techradar.com
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Doesn't Apple get a licensing fee from 3rd party lightning cable makers though? This is what he's probably talking about, Apple needs to put a proprietary twist on wireless charging that's exclusive to the iPhone in order to rake in no matter who makes it.
Right, because there are no third parties making chargers for Apple devices today. (Perhaps you should change your handle to mem-CHRONIC, so we know what you're smoking.)
They will have to come up with a way to do it that's exclusive to the iPhone and proprietary like the lighting port/cable if they want to keep the profits associated with the current cable and the licensing fees they get from 3rd party sources.
Wireless charging should have been higher on the priority list instead of removing the headphone jack.
Wireless charging, waterproof, amoled. hmmmm, wonder why that sounds so familiar…
I completely agree
Seems like Apple has not come up with anything original
Apple uses a ceramic back on the Apple Watch for inductive charging. I wonder if we will see an iPhone made of ceramics, at least in part, when they finally include inductive charging.
Don't be so optimistic. Apple would not use wireless charging because it would open 3rd party chargers market, therefore losing several bucks(ok, a little more than several
) per charger they make today. Unless they will manage to sign the magnetic field LOL.
3rd party pays license to Apple. QED. I guess you should quit smoking and read the whole sentence, not between the lines. Fanboy.