RIM, Energizer join Wireless Power Consortium
updated 04:05 pm EST, Thu December 3, 2009
Wireless Power Consortium gets RIM, Energizer
The Wireless Power Consortium on Thursday announced it has added BlackBerry maker RIM and battery maker Energizer, furthering the organization's mission of developing a wireless charging standard it is calling Qi. There are now 21 members in the Consortium, and the opportunity was also taken to announce the second round of prototype testing has been successfully completed.
The Consortium hopes to see Qi become to wireless charging what USB is to wired charging, and the addition of large companies with popular products such as RIM and Energizer are expected to help the Consortium reach its goal.
RIM is the second handset maker to join the Consortium, after Nokia began backing the open source standard in October. RIM and Nokia are regular members of the Consortium, while Energizer together with competitor Duracell are associate members.
Initially, the Consortium plans on developing a system that would charge low-power devices that use 5W of power or less such as cellphones and media players.
