Apple requests wireless charging chip samples for upcoming iPhone product, report says

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware
A report out of the Far East on Tuesday claims Apple recently requested a batch of wireless charging chip samples from Taiwanese semiconductor company MediaTek, suggesting the iPhone maker is forging ahead with development of a bespoke wireless charging solution.




Citing supply chain sources, the Economic Daily News reports Apple is shopping around for manufacturers to supply wireless chips for an iPhone "charging back cover." The wording suggests the development of wireless charging cases, though Apple's requests could be the first step toward an integrated solution to debut in a next-generation handset.

A separate report from hit-or-miss publication DigiTimes says Apple is also reviewing samples from IDT and NXP, the latter of which supplies NFC iPhone

The reports rekindle rumors surrounding Apple's ongoing development of cutting-edge wireless charging technologies. Portable device users have for decades been literally tethered to wall outlets, but that is slowly changing thanks to advances in wireless charging tech.

Apple just recently dipped its toe into the wireless charging pond with Apple Watch. The wearable is Apple's first device to eschew external electrical contacts in favor of inductive charging technology. Apple Watch's Magnetic Charging Cable, however, can be fairly described as a tether since it requires contact with the device to work. Additionally, Apple Watch is slow to charge, a drawback of many wireless charging solutions.

There is evidence that Apple is investigating powerful technology that could lead to a world without without wires.

Earlier this year, the company was said to be working with Asian suppliers to overcome challenging engineering hurdles associated with long-distance wireless charging systems for iPhone and iPad. In May, a pair of experts were hired away from uBeam, a firm developing technology that uses ultrasonic waves to charge devices from afar.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 17
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    To: Mike (the author). Why use the word "bespoke" instead of the word "custom"?
    nolamacguy
  • Reply 2 of 17
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    AppleInsider said:
    ... technology that uses ultrasonic waves to charge devices from afar.
    Might also be a great dog repellant.
    lkrupp1983
  • Reply 3 of 17
    qwweraqwwera Posts: 281member
    And even with the extra time with essentially another year of the 6 series, if Apple is still trying to source parts for next years phone, that means they are nowhere close to having next year's phone ready. 
    God knows what they have planned for the 8 that they haven't finished designing it, and had to setttle with the crappy 6 for one more year.
    edited September 2016
  • Reply 4 of 17
    dick applebaumdick applebaum Posts: 12,527member
    sockrolid said:
    AppleInsider said:
    ... technology that uses ultrasonic waves to charge devices from afar.
    Might also be a great dog repellant.

    LOL!

    My first thought is that it will scramble our brains.

  • Reply 5 of 17
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    Hopefully they give us something like the Touchstone charger.

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0133f533a411970b-800wi
    edited September 2016
  • Reply 6 of 17
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    qwwera said:
    And even with the extra time with essentially another year of the 6 series, if Apple is still trying to source parts for next years phone, that means they are nowhere close to having next year's phone ready. 
    God knows what they have planned for the 8 that they haven't finished designing it, and had to setttle with the crappy 6 for one more year.
    Actually, it doesn't mean anything of the sort. For a release for next year I would imagine that the bulk of the design work has been done. 

    If you'd been paying attention for the past twenty odd years then you'd have realised that Apple doesn't look at parts and then decide to build a phone depending on what it can get hold of.  In fact, I don't believe any company does that. 

    The phone is designed then Apple will look at samples and examine the quality. If it's a custom part then they will ask for test batches from several outfits and will probably have more than one supplier for the same part. 
    EsquireCatskevin keenolamacguy
  • Reply 7 of 17
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    And the other shoe drops. They really don't even have to replace the headphone jack with anything. Just remove it to work out any issues that come up with digitally interfaced headphones and adapters for the next year, then introduce wireless charging. It'll be 2018 before they yank the Lightning port completely though, and then we'll be going through this whole adapter debate all over again. But if it's really contactless/wireless power transmission, it will be worth all of this transition. 
  • Reply 8 of 17
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,417member
    sockrolid said:
    AppleInsider said:
    ... technology that uses ultrasonic waves to charge devices from afar.
    Might also be a great dog repellant.
    Or sharks, if the iPhone is waterproof.
  • Reply 9 of 17
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    Parts suppliers are sought around the phone design, not the other way round. How Mr Ive design is to create hundreds of prototype and starts from there in this order::
    1. design
    2. technology
    3. engineering
    4. suppliers
    5. assembly
    edited September 2016
  • Reply 10 of 17
    right_said_fredright_said_fred Posts: 803member
    kevin kee said:
    Parts suppliers are sought around the phone design, not the other way round. How Mr Ive design is to create hundreds of prototype and starts from there in this order::
    1. design
    2. technology
    3. engineering
    4. suppliers
    5. assembly
    Although i recall - SJ liked the super tiny hard-drives ( toshiba i think) he basically offered it to his desgner ( outsourced at the time) & asked they worked an mp3 player around it. this with the click wheel was the first iPod.
    doozydozen
  • Reply 11 of 17
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    right_said_fred said:
    kevin kee said:
    Parts suppliers are sought around the phone design, not the other way round. How Mr Ive design is to create hundreds of prototype and starts from there in this order::
    1. design
    2. technology
    3. engineering
    4. suppliers
    5. assembly
    Although i recall - SJ liked the super tiny hard-drives ( toshiba i think) he basically offered it to his desgner ( outsourced at the time) & asked they worked an mp3 player around it. this with the click wheel was the first iPod.
    Not quite. Jon Rubenstein saw the 1.8" hard drives on a tour of Toshiba's labs, then called Jobs and asked for the money to buy up the supply.
    fastasleepnolamacguy
  • Reply 12 of 17
    qwweraqwwera Posts: 281member
    Rayz2016 said:
    qwwera said:
    And even with the extra time with essentially another year of the 6 series, if Apple is still trying to source parts for next years phone, that means they are nowhere close to having next year's phone ready. 
    God knows what they have planned for the 8 that they haven't finished designing it, and had to setttle with the crappy 6 for one more year.
    Actually, it doesn't mean anything of the sort. For a release for next year I would imagine that the bulk of the design work has been done. 

    If you'd been paying attention for the past twenty odd years then you'd have realised that Apple doesn't look at parts and then decide to build a phone depending on what it can get hold of.  In fact, I don't believe any company does that. 

    The phone is designed then Apple will look at samples and examine the quality. If it's a custom part then they will ask for test batches from several outfits and will probably have more than one supplier for the same part. 
    Lol you have no idea. 
    True, in theory everything goes to plan, all organized and everyone is polite and say bless you and excuse
    me. But if they're still sourcing shit out this close to the due date on the final, they are way the fuck behind.
    Honestly, if they they were on track their "8", there would mot have been this shitty 7/6 being shown off tomorrow. The 7 is proof they said "shit, let's just release this crappy phone one more year and hopefully by then we'll have it ready.

    thats not not a bad thing! That's sounds like Apple shooting for the moon. It sounds like when it's done,  next year's phone is going to be AMAZING!
    either that ...or they'll move the antenna up a little more for the 7s.
  • Reply 13 of 17
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,417member
    qwwera said:
    Lol you have no idea. 
    True, in theory everything goes to plan, all organized and everyone is polite and say bless you and excuse
    me. But if they're still sourcing shit out this close to the due date on the final, they are way the fuck behind.
    Honestly, if they they were on track their "8", there would mot have been this shitty 7/6 being shown off tomorrow. The 7 is proof they said "shit, let's just release this crappy phone one more year and hopefully by then we'll have it ready.

    thats not not a bad thing! That's sounds like Apple shooting for the moon. It sounds like when it's done,  next year's phone is going to be AMAZING!
    either that ...or they'll move the antenna up a little more for the 7s.
    Make up your mind, is the iPhone 7 crappy or shitty? OR is the 7 shitty but the 6s was crappy?
    doozydozen
  • Reply 14 of 17
    qwweraqwwera Posts: 281member
    fastasleep said:
    qwwera said:
    Lol you have no idea. 
    True, in theory everything goes to plan, all organized and everyone is polite and say bless you and excuse
    me. But if they're still sourcing shit out this close to the due date on the final, they are way the fuck behind.
    Honestly, if they they were on track their "8", there would mot have been this shitty 7/6 being shown off tomorrow. The 7 is proof they said "shit, let's just release this crappy phone one more year and hopefully by then we'll have it ready.

    thats not not a bad thing! That's sounds like Apple shooting for the moon. It sounds like when it's done,  next year's phone is going to be AMAZING!
    either that ...or they'll move the antenna up a little more for the 7s.
    Make up your mind, is the iPhone 7 crappy or shitty? OR is the 7 shitty but the 6s was crappy?
    Actually to be honest, i think
    it looks like a less crappy and shitty  6. I already decided I'm getting 7 plus. The camera intrigues me. Piano Black with no bikini line sounds sexy. 

    Saying crappy or shitty for the 7 is just hyperbole. I'm sold on it already and then I'm getting the 8s two years from now.
  • Reply 15 of 17
    doozydozendoozydozen Posts: 539member
    qwwera said:
    And even with the extra time with essentially another year of the 6 series, if Apple is still trying to source parts for next years phone, that means they are nowhere close to having next year's phone ready. 
    God knows what they have planned for the 8 that they haven't finished designing it, and had to setttle with the crappy 6 for one more year.
    So because Apple did not reinvent the rounded rectangle paradigm you're calling the yet-to-be-announced iPhone a failure, or "crappy" in your words?

    Just so we can get a sense of your design ideology—do you find the ever evolving Porsche 911 to be crappy design as well? 
    edited September 2016 nolamacguyTurboPGT
  • Reply 16 of 17
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    qwwera said:
    Rayz2016 said:
    qwwera said:
    And even with the extra time with essentially another year of the 6 series, if Apple is still trying to source parts for next years phone, that means they are nowhere close to having next year's phone ready. 
    God knows what they have planned for the 8 that they haven't finished designing it, and had to setttle with the crappy 6 for one more year.
    Actually, it doesn't mean anything of the sort. For a release for next year I would imagine that the bulk of the design work has been done. 

    If you'd been paying attention for the past twenty odd years then you'd have realised that Apple doesn't look at parts and then decide to build a phone depending on what it can get hold of.  In fact, I don't believe any company does that. 

    The phone is designed then Apple will look at samples and examine the quality. If it's a custom part then they will ask for test batches from several outfits and will probably have more than one supplier for the same part. 
    Lol you have no idea. 
    True, in theory everything goes to plan, all organized and everyone is polite and say bless you and excuse
    me. But if they're still sourcing shit out this close to the due date on the final, they are way the fuck behind.
    Honestly, if they they were on track their "8", there would mot have been this shitty 7/6 being shown off tomorrow. The 7 is proof they said "shit, let's just release this crappy phone one more year and hopefully by then we'll have it ready.

    thats not not a bad thing! That's sounds like Apple shooting for the moon. It sounds like when it's done,  next year's phone is going to be AMAZING!
    either that ...or they'll move the antenna up a little more for the 7s.
    or, this is just a rumor and nobody on this forum has any idea what the reality is. but if I had to bet money, I'd wager Apple knows what it's doing based on their amazing track record, and that random anonymous dudes spouting off in barely intelligible grunts on rumor sites are pretty clueless. 
    edited September 2016 doozydozenfastasleepwaverboy
  • Reply 17 of 17
    kamiltonkamilton Posts: 282member
    mac_128 said:
    And the other shoe drops. They really don't even have to replace the headphone jack with anything. Just remove it to work out any issues that come up with digitally interfaced headphones and adapters for the next year, then introduce wireless charging. It'll be 2018 before they yank the Lightning port completely though, and then we'll be going through this whole adapter debate all over again. But if it's really contactless/wireless power transmission, it will be worth all of this transition. 
    That transition makes the most sense.  One more cycle of Lightning, which allows customers to get acquainted with Lightning to Headphone adapter, combined with first generation wireless headphones/Airbuds, as they wish.  In 2017, iPhone 8 will have to wires at all, allowing for solid water resistance, etc.  Universal Wireless charging systems will likely span iPhone iPad Watch and maybe Laptops, which would be handy.  

    My wish is for a translucent, Liquid Metal phone body that's virtually indestructible.  That world be super cool.  Almost as cool as an Apple Toothbrush 
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