Almost four months after officially merging in July, the wireless charging groups The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) and the Power Matters Alliance (PMA) have announced that they are now known collectively as the AirFuel Alliance.
In January when the pending merger was first unveiled and in July when the merger was completed, a new name for the organization had not yet been selected, but was expected by the end of this year.
With its new name and mission of working as one organization, the AirFuel Alliance says it will continue to push for the improvement and development of wireless charging standards for consumer and business mobile devices.
“AirFuel technology is the next step in fast-tracking the commercialization of wirelessly charged products,” Ron Resnick, the president of the group, said in a Nov. 3 statement. “We embrace a new, inclusive ideal of wireless charging and those member companies within AirFuel Alliance are energized towards bringing wireless power products to consumers globally.”
The group says it will work to accelerate the impact of wireless power transfer technology through inductive, resonant and future standards to benefit all users, device makers and other related groups. The AirFuel Alliance has 195 member companies so far, including AT&T, Broadcom, Duracell, Flextronics, Gill Electronics, Integrated Device Technologies, Intel, MediaTek, ON Semiconductor, Powermat Technologies, Qualcomm Inc., Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Semtech, Starbucks and WiTricity.
The logos and identities of the A4WP and PMA will eventually be retired as the merger and renaming continue to take effect, the group said.
“The introduction of AirFuel is a clear step in the right direction for true wireless charging,” Resnick said. “AirFuel Alliance is committed to bringing to life technology that uses AirFuel while continuing to be open to further industry consolidation.”
In addition to the existing inductive and resonant technologies being supported by the group today for wireless charging, the alliance is also developing technologies that go beyond the use of magnetics through a working group, according to the organization.
The A4WP and PMA worked together under an earlier collaboration agreement since February 2014 before the merger took place, according to an earlier eWEEK story. Each of the two groups had been founded individually in 2012. The A4WP was dedicated to building a global wireless-charging ecosystem based on the Rezence magnetic resonance wireless-charging standard, while PMA supported inductive-charging methods.
Another wireless-charging group, the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), has been developing its own Qi standard on its own.
The three-way fight for wireless-charging standards had meant that the marketplace has been somewhat splintered in the last few years, according to earlier eWEEK reports. The merger between two of the groups was seen as a first step to begin to resolve some of that chasm.
