After 18 months of work, the Wireless Power Consortium announced that its "Qi" wireless power standard is complete. The standard delivers power into wireless power receivers by means of magnetic induction; a Qi-compatible device charges simply by resting on a compatible power pad.

We published a report about the Wireless Power Consortium last year, which has well-known companies such as Samsung, Texas Instruments and Sanyo as its members. Other companies include Energizer, Philips, Nokia, Research in Motion, LG Electronics and HTC--virtually guaranteeing that the next generation of smartphones and consumer electronics will be compatible with Qi.

Qi supports a maximum of 5 watts and should be adequate for practically all devices that charge via USB ports today, which typically max out at 2.5 watts. (The iPad comes with a 10 watt charger, though.) The next step of the process involves interoperability testing, with certification testing services currently scheduled to start in August.

Though the alliance did not say when they expect the first devices using its standard will start appearing on the market, the August date suggests that Qi-compatible devices could well appear in time for the holiday buying season.

The Wireless Power Consortium is not stopping with this low-powered specification either. On Monday, the group announced that it will be working on a wireless charging specification for wirelessly charging laptops with up to 120 watts. For now, the consortium says it is not working on over-the-air charging due to the inherent inefficiencies of current techniques.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at PC Mag
- check out this article at Ars Technica

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