Wireless charging looks unlikely to make an appearance in the iPhone 7, but speculation points to its being the first Apple smartphone to ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack in favour of Lightning-equipped headphones. PCWorld’s Mark Hachman reported on a similar technology called Cota at CES, which can send power up to 10 meters away. The challenge is that wireless charging doesn’t do well with distance, hence why today’s devices that support wireless charging need to be placed on or near the power source (a mat, typically).
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If future Apple handsets do become completely wireless, we can probably expect thinner, sleeker devices.
Though many of its competitors added some type of wireless charging to their smartphones, Apple never added the feature to its iPhone.
Back at the iPhone 5 launch in 2012, Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller said that wireless charging doesn’t offer any convenience because of the reliance on a charging plate. There are a few ways in which this could be achieved, the most likely one is via a method that charges the iPhone through a near field magnetic resonance. Instead the phone could charge at greater distances, completely wirelessly, from the source of power.
Nikkei’s report says Apple was waiting for the right time to announce the iPhone 5se. Any upcoming new devices from Apple are certainly targeting increased sales for the company, which is seeing sales slowdowns globally for some of its most popular devices, such as iPhones and iPads, according to Apple’s latest quarterly sales figures, which were released January 26.
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Further, people in the company who asked not to be identified, stated that the company is now working towards eliminating technical barriers, including the loss of power over distance.
