Could the iPhone 7 have wireless charging?

29 Jan 2016

According to sources within Apple, the company is putting a lot of effort into making sure that its tech to be released in 2017 will keep up with the Joneses and include wireless-charging capabilities.

With Apple’s financial results for Q1 showing that the multi-billion dollar company is seeing the first signs of a plateauing of its iPhone sales, it is already looking to see how it can change this course with the iPhone 7 next year.

And, according to Bloomberg, a group of employees within Apple have said that the company is exploring how to get wireless charging technology into its iPhones and iPads through a charging pad, no doubt its own charging pad without third-party support.

At the moment, its engineers are working to overcome a number of obstacles, particularly the issues of power loss over a distance as, obviously, the further away from the pad you are the slower it will charge.

A wireless change of heart

If Apple is indeed developing wireless charging technology, then it would be a clear change of heart for the company which, following the release of the iPhone 5, said that it would likely not be worth its while to develop the technology.

This, despite the fact it had previously issued patents that made it appear it was at least looking at its potential, where it outlined how it could use its Mac computers as a wireless charging emitter for the iPhone within a distance of one metre.

With regards to this recent news, Apple has refused to comment.

While news of any new feature from Apple is usually treated as a breakthrough for the industry as a whole, its competitors have already released commercial phones capable of being charged wirelessly, such as the Samsung Galaxy S5.

iPhone wireless charging image via Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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