Ikea announced Sunday March 1st, 2015 at Mobile World Congress it is introducing its first furniture line that offers wireless charging for phones, tablets, and other mobile devices.
Ikea’s furniture, which it calls its “Home Smart” line, will integrate the popular Qi wireless charging technology into special “charging pads” on the furniture. People will then be able to buy and assemble the furniture and leave their Qi-supported devices on those pads for a quick battery charge.
Smartphones that don’t support Qi will be incompatible with this furniture. The Qi wireless charging technology is controlled by the Wireless Power Consortium, which boasts 200-plus members including Samsung, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, HTC, Verizon Wireless, and others.
More than 80 different smartphones offer support for Qi, which is currently the most used wireless charging standard in the world. It works thanks to embedded magnetic coils that generate a small electromagnetic field — smartphones and tablets that support Qi then convert this field into energy to replenish the device’s battery.
I thought this was interesting because people are always hanging over their chairs and sofas to charge their electronics. I think charging cords are getting shorter every time something new comes out and with this furniture you can just put your electronic on your table and it will charge and you don’t have to forget to plug it in or forget that you plugged it in.
I can't wait for the day when instead of bringing a phone charger, people are lugging their coffee table to class to keep their phone charged.
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