What do the Nokia Lumia 920, the HTC Droid DNA, Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S 3 have in common?
Qi (pronounced chee) is an interface standard developed by the Wireless Power Consortium. The standard applies to inductive electrical power transfer over distances of up to 40 milimeters. In other words it’s used for charging phones and recently a growing number of phone manufacturers have been integrating the wireless charging standard into their devices.
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And that’s all good because, that means some day (hopefully soon) users will not have rummage about for power cords and power docks that only fit into their phones because we can all wirelessly charge our phones (no matter what brand it is) on Qi-enabled wireless charging docks.
This, according to a recent Networkwold.com article, also has the potential of boosting near filed communication adoption.
NFC is being touted as the technology that could push mobile payment. However, there is currently a shortage of phone manufacturers integrating NFC into their devices and this has slowed the willingness of merchants to jump aboard.
However, some manufacturers such as TDK have demonstrated in the recently concluded 2013 Consumer Electronics Show that it is possible to integrate Qi wireless technology and NFC is a single chip.
It is possible that as QI wireless charging become more predominant, NFC could ride piggy back on that popularity.