Qi2: How Apple could finally harness MagSafe by giving it away

It’s safe to say that Apple’s MagSafe magnetic charging discs for iPhones didn’t create the amazing add-on ecosystem we were hoping for. Instead of letting manufacturers freely create tools that power and/or connect to the iPhone, the company has opted for the traditional tight licensing grip. But this time around, manufacturers realized they didn’t need to play Apple’s game, because MagSafe’s two key components — a Qi wireless charging coil and a set of magnets — were freely available. The result: a wide range of “MagSafe compatible” accessories of varying quality.

But now, Apple is trying something different. With competitors’ blessing, Apple is about to change the Qi wireless standard Itself. It contributes to a new version of Qi that works like MagSafe – magnet, authentication and all.

It’s called Qi2, and yes, it effectively means MagSafe is coming to Android, for better or worse. Both Samsung and Apple are expected to bring Qi2-certified products to market, Wireless Power Consortium spokesperson Paul Golden said. the edgeAnd he says there’s no reason to believe that future Qi2-certified chargers won’t work with both.

And while I say “for better or for worse,” it mostly looks better! The idea, Golden says, is to eliminate confusion about whether chargers and phones are actually interoperable, and to make sure the coils are tightly linked and aligned properly so you can charge at full speed — unlike how Apple currently limits Qi chargers to half speed. When they are charging the iPhone.

There’s no reason to believe that a future Qi2 charger won’t work seamlessly and identically with both Android and iPhone, Golden says when I ask. This is because Apple, the WPC’s “guiding member” (and chairman of the board) contributes essentially the same “magnetic energy profile” as MagSafe to the new Qi2 standard.

That’s not all WPC is up to, either! While the Qi2.0 version is very much about adding magnets – still primarily for phones, still above 15W, still having the same foreign object detection, etc – WPC intends to take advantage of a foolproof magnetic coupling to give us faster Shipping speeds, too. “When we finalize the specs for Qi2, we will immediately start working on a much higher level of power profile for the next version of Qi2,” Golden says.

And then there’s the possibility to charge devices like smartwatches that don’t necessarily have flat charging coils. “The launch of the Qi2 standard will expand the wireless charging market further by opening the market to new accessories that would not otherwise be charged with existing flat-to-surface devices,” reads an impressive line. In the WPC press release. (Victoria, my fellow smartwatch reviewer, I can not wait.)

Well, why did I say “for the worse” four paragraphs ago if things were so rosy? There are a few wrinkles that make me stop. First, Golden stresses that the Qi2 standard is weird No You have exactly Same magnet style as MagSafe, and it’s not clear what’s going to happen with current iPhones because of that.

“We certainly expect from now on they’ll be fully in sync with Qi2 and we know that they … as much as they’re going to do with iPhone 12, 13, 14, MagSafe products that are currently on the market, they don’t share that with us,” he says. Will Apple ditch existing MagSafe products in exchange for a better, interoperable version, or does it have other plans?

Apple did not respond to our request for comment or an interview.

Secondly, there is the full authentication thing. In the planned spec, Gold posts, every Qi2 transmitter will require authentication, which suggests Apple, Samsung, and other manufacturers could tell their devices to refuse to ship from uncertified products, or perhaps even other things. This may lead to some “better user experiences,” but it’s not the free market for wireless chargers and magnets that we have today.

Third, I’m sorry to say that WPC’s Qi2 certification will not guarantee that the magnets are strong enough to stick and stay on without slipping. Magnet size and strength are an issue in product design. Product design issues are determined by the manufacturers of the product,” Golden says. I was really hoping that a certain element of the MagSafe-compatible Wild West would be solved here.

I keep coming back to this: What does Apple get out of giving MagSafe to its competitors? I think it is, as always, a matter of control. With Europe and India mandated to use USB-C, the company won’t have a Lightning accessory ecosystem, nor can it control the mountains of Qi chargers and magnets leaving China after a certain point. But maybe, with endorsement, he might narrow down an upcoming magnetic supplement ecosystem to something he already loves.

Or this could simply be Apple relinquishing direct control in favor of accelerating a technology from which it might benefit in the long run. It is a little known fact that Apple was behind the creation of Thunderbolt (originally known as top light). It became Intel that sponsored it, before effectively donating the technology to become part of the USB standard.

The Qi2 specification is supposed to be completed in the middle of this year, with the products tentatively arriving in time for the holidays.