Microsoft has finally joined the Wireless Power Consortium, a group that contains over 200 members and supports the Qi technology standard for the wireless charging of devices. Qi is the same standard that Nokia uses for charging a number of its Lumia smartphones wirelessly.
The Nokia Lumia 1520 is one of many smartphones that support wireless charging via the Qi standard.
The addition of Microsoft to the WPC is to be expected as the company is supposed to purchase Nokia's Devices and Services division before the end of the month. Nokia has heavily promoted the fact that many of its higher end Lumia smartphones that run on Windows Phone can be charged wirelessly. It's more than likely that Microsoft will continue to offer that kind of support when Nokia's hardware group is in their hands.
Other members of the WPC include Samsung, Motorola, HTC, BlackBerry and Qualcomm. There are two other groups, the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) and the Power Matters Alliance (PMA), that current support competing standards. However, the consensus is that over time the groups will work together so that in the end there will be one standard for wireless charging.
Source: WPC via PRNewswire | Image via Nokia
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