Xiaomi has joined the Wireless Power Consortium to enable Qi wireless charging standard on its new devices. The latest development brings the Chinese company to the market of wireless charging-supported smartphones that has Samsung as a long-standing player and recently included Apple.
Although Xiaomi hasn't officially announced the new move, the updated list of Wireless Power Consortium members includes its name. The Consortium, founded in December 2008, has a total of 243 companies as its active members that are spread across 23 countries globally. Further, companies like Aircharge, Haier, LG, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Samsung are governing its board.
There are speculations that Xiaomi will leverage the new partnership by enabling a Qi standard-based wireless charging on its Mi 7. The flagship smartphone is rumoured to debut in the first quarter of 2018 with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 chipset and a 6-inch edge-to-edge AMOLED display.
Nurturing further growth
The joining of the Wireless Power Consortium makes Xiaomi further ahead in the race of advanced smartphones. The Beijing-based company already proved its success in several Asian markets and brought innovative developments such as one of the world's first bezel-less smartphones, called Mi Mix, and launching an affordable wearable, dubbed Mi Band.
While Xiaomi is about to bring its wireless charging-supported development, Apple lately adopted Qi standard to enhance the iPhone family. The newly launched iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X, all support Qi wireless charging with a proprietary protocol, namely AirPower.
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However, if we look at the list of early adopters of the modern charging technology, Nokia comes at first. The Finnish company unveiled the Windows Phone 8.1 running Lumia 920 in 2012 with hardware based on Qi standard. LG followed the footsteps of the Lumia maker by launching the Nexus 4 with wireless charging support later that year.
Low awareness and fewer use cases of wireless charging are apparently the primary reasons behind its low adoption. But with companies like Apple and Xiaomi showing interest, this would become a traditional feature in most of the next-generation smartphones.
