Wireless Charging for Mobiles Soon to Become 'Industry Standard'

As the launch date for the Galaxy S6 smartphone nears, more details about the device have emerged by way of news leaks or hints provided by the ads released by Samsung.

The recent detail about wireless charging emerged in a blog post on the company's website which was titled "Wireless Smartphone Charging as an Industry Standard."

The blog post written by Seho Park, the lead engineer for IT and mobile at Samsung, pointed out that wireless charging could soon become an "industry standard." Park stated that this year the number of wireless charging stations is set to grow tremendously and will be available in more public spaces like restaurants and cafes.

Right now there are different standards employed for wireless charging ranging from the Wireless Power Consortium, or WPC, which is used by McDonalds in the United Kingdom, to the Alliance for Wireless Power, or A4WP, and finally the Power Matters Alliance, or PMA, which is used by Starbucks.

The A4WP and the PMA standards are due to merge, but the Samsung Galaxy S6 would not need to choose to conform to one standard or another if it has the BCM59350 chip manufactured by Broadcom which works on all three standards. This chip, which is otherwise known as the Wireless Charging Power Management Unit, was released in 2014.

In his blog post, Park said such chips that support multiple wireless charging standards are already available, adding that products featuring them would be introduced into the market this year. ZDNET said the blog post by Park hints that the Galaxy S6 could be the "first smartphone to employ such a chip."

While the blog post does not confirm whether the Galaxy S6 will indeed support wireless charging for all three protocols, Samsung has over the past few years provided wireless charging accessories for many of its smartphones and phablets, including the Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 4.