Date: 13/10/2010

In-Stat: Consumers are demanding wireless charging solutions for mobiles devices

In-Stat has reported the about 44% of survey respondents have found current mobile charging solutions are an annoyance and about 40% are willing to pay $50 more for a wireless charging solution. As a result In-Stat has estimated that the market for wireless charging systems will reach $4.3 billion in total market revenue by 2014.

In-Stat also reports that there also exists barriers to growth. One of those is the existence of several competing technologies which threatens to fragment the industry and foster incompatibility. Widespread adoption of wireless charging technology will be difficult without standardization since users do not want to carry multiple chargers, wired or wireless, to plug in their phones while traveling.

The release states that 28.3% of survey respondents indicated lack of standards as the most annoying issue in charging mobile devices. The prices are expected to degrade rapidly to about half of current pricing by 2014. Of the integrated charging solutions, over two thirds are expected to be in cars.

"Few device vendors have the power to drive their own standards and build their own ecosystem," says Jim McGregor, Chief Technology Strategist. "Sony, Apple, Qualcomm, and Samsung are perhaps the only players with the strength, breadth of product line, and customer loyalty to create an environment capable of supporting a proprietary wireless charging technology."