“Energous, the company long rumored to be working with Apple on long-range wireless charging for the iPhone, has taken on an important partner that might open doors for it in the future,” Mark Sullivan reports for Fast Company.
“Last month Energous took a $10 million investment from the power management chip maker Dialog Semiconductor, which makes the bulk of its revenue supplying,” Sullivan reports. “One source told me that as much as three quarters of Dialog’s business is with Apple.”
“People have long speculated that Energous is working with Apple on putting its WattUp RF charging tech inside the iPhone. It stems from Energous’s statement that it signed a development and licensing agreement in February 2015 with ‘one of the top consumer electronic companies in the world’ to integrate the WattUp technology into the partner’s “consumer devices,” Sullivan reports. “If Energous were trying to get into a position to supply technology to Apple, it couldn’t have made a better move than tucking itself under Dialog’s wing.”
“On its own, Energous is probably too small to be an Apple supplier. Apple suppliers have to be large enough to reliably supply parts at Apple’s huge scale,” Sullivan reports. “Dialog obviously already has that capacity. With the Energous technology basically being folded into the Dialog structure, all of a sudden Energous has it too.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.
Right now, the Apple Watch’s wireless charging is nice because it’s less fiddly, and especially useful in the dark, but it’s still essentially a corded charging system in practice.
Energous’ solutions are real wireless charging and would be a huge game-changer if it came to iPhone (and possibly iPad and Apple Watch, too)!
SEE ALSO:
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple’s next-gen iPhone to feature all-glass case for wireless charging – November 23, 2016
Two major ‘iPhone 8’ leaks reveal groundbreaking new features – November 23, 2016
Evidence suggests Apple is working on the biggest mobile game-changer since the original iPhone – November 8, 2016
Apple possibly working with Energous on extended range wireless charging for future iPhones – February 5, 2016
Apple developing cutting-edge long-range wirelessly-charged iPhones and iPads – January 29, 2016
iPhone 7 and the potential for wireless charging – January 19, 2016
Apple will drop headphone jack to make the iPhone 7 super slim, source confirms; wireless charging and waterproof, too – January 7, 2016
Apple looks to patent inductive charging system that could power an Apple Pencil or even a future kitchen appliance – January 7, 2016
Apple files 5th wireless inductive charging patent application since Late September – November 5, 2015\
Apple patent application reveals iPhone inductive charging sans extra hardware – October 8, 2015
Patent application reveals Apple working on wireless charging systems focused on rapid power delivery – August 27, 2015
Apple invents inductive charging interfaces for mobile devices – April 2, 2015
Apple ‘iPhone 7’ models likely to offer wireless charging – April 2, 2015
This would be the greatest thing to come to apple products, actual real no wires charging. Exclusive to iOS devices (and macs once the power kicks up enough to do that), lest see someone try to reverse engineer that one…
What about this? Ceramic iPhone with wireless charging? Back to a combination of iPhone 4 glass design with iPhone 6/7 shape? (That was my favorite design) … this is all extremely exciting.
MDN your take isn’t quite right. The Apple Watch use inductive charging not wireless. If Apple is the Energous teir one partner and they can nail the technology, watch their shares fly.
Or you could buy an HP Slice and just set your inductive charging phone on the top of your computer
It certainly looks as though Apple is lining up it’s ducks very nicely before making a big announcement.
The sort of medium range wireless charging is going to make all sorts of things possible. Apart from the obvious applications with iPhones, iPads and Watch, I would also look forward to wireless mice and keyboards which will never need to be plugged in to anything. Furthermore, it might be practical to supply a wireless keyboard with enough power to incorporate a built in Touch Bar.