Way back in
December of 2013 I bought a Google-branded inductive charger for my Nexus 4. The technology immediately won me over; there was no fast-charging technology to speak of at the time, and thus no drawbacks to dropping my phone on a charging mat beside my desktop computer. Having my phone always juiced up and ready to go was pretty great.
Around this time
IKEA started selling a floor lamp with an inductive charging pad built-in, and at least one coffee shop near me had wireless charging embedded in its counters. As even the mighty Samsung got behind the nascent
Qi charging standard, a future with less wires looked increasingly possible. People were even talking about inductive bowls that you could dump all of your electronics in to charge as you walked through the threshold of your home.
And then fast charging happened. Wireless charging never really went away, of course, but for me it became harder and harder to justify a slow wireless charge over a wired one that could get my phone battery to 100% in about an hour.
Cut to the present day, where the new iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X all support
the Qi inductive charging standard. Again, inductive charging never went away, but with Apple supporting it I'd expect to see
a lot more inductive chargers in coffee shops across North America. And soon.
The new iPhones also support fast charging, but only through additional accessories—namely,
a USB-C to Lightning cable and separate 29 watt brick. I honestly think that wireless charging is going to end up being the bigger deal, whether you're an iPhone user or not. I'd even go so far as to predict that next year will see a renewed interest in Qi-compatible Android phones.
In the meantime, here's a question for iOS enthusiasts: which are you more excited about, wireless charging or fast wired charging?
Links:
IKEA,
The Verge,
Wikipedia
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