Pi wants to extend the reach of wireless charging | TechCrunch

I’ve been hoping for a truly ‘wireless’ charging experience to surface, and Pi looks like an exciting product.

I’m concerned about a couple of things though:

1. Charging the device requires plugging it into a case first. This is probably just a minor hurdle and phone makers could put the receiver in the device itself. So once the phone appears in Pi’s range it could automatically start charging. But does Pi want the receiver part to be an open-standard? It’s unclear from their pitch as to what their larger goal about that end of the experience is. Do they want it to be a ubiquitous experience or offer special Pi cases?

2. What’s the efficiency? I guess, something that’s always charging can make do with a lot less efficiency than your wire charger. If a phone takes ~6 hours while charging in a room, that’s fine. Because I wouldn’t realise it’s charging, would I? But then from the previously rumoured efficiency on this type of tech, it seems its even lower than that (as low as 10% of wired charging), if they’ve improved on that, this is going to be interesting product.

I’m curious what Pi’s faith is. Unfortunately, to me it seems, they’ll either be acquired by a big tech firm, or become popular until a bigger player introduces their own version and put’s pi’s’ life in much jeopardy.