To butt heads pretty directly with Powermat, Energizer today announced that they’ll have an inductive charging pad and case for the iPhone 3GS and battery door for the BlackBerry Curve 8900 starting in October. The mat is Qi-compliant, which is a standard many cell phone manufacturers are huddling around.
Powermat’s learning how to bypass sleeves and cases altogether by building wireless charging right into the batteries themselves, but that has yet to come to market. Energizer’s a bit of a beast in the charging market, and unless Powermat and other wireless charging companies can take advantage of their head start, Energizer will probably steamroll them. Though inductive charging hasn’t been especially prevalent among mobile manufacturers so far (except Palm), their presence in the Wireless Power Consortium is a hint that maybe even Energizer will get cut off at the source for these products in an upcoming generation of smartphones. The more players the better, in any case – I’m looking forward to a world where I can charge my phone on a restaurant table during dinner, or on my car’s dash while on the move.
Head on over to Energizer’s minisite for more info on the new accessory. The inductive charger should be going for around $89, while the iPhone 3GS
[via BusinessWire]