A couple of years ago, I remember having a conversation with then-colleague Pete Lacis about electromagnetic induction, and how awesome it would be to have devices that would charge via its use – you know, without all those cords. For those of us who are into every single gadget that comes across the transom and make regular reads of Engadget, Gizmodo, or spend time at gdgt, this wasn’t a totally new concept, but it was still one that hadn’t been made ready for primetime. Who would bring this to the table, given the massive amount of sales that various power adapters make up for both OEMs and other manufacturers? I mean, a quick peek at Amazon’s “AC adapter” results give you a quick look at how many products are out there for sale right now, and clearly that business would “suffer,” or at least see share shift, no?
Enter Ran Poliakine and Powermat.
In June of 2007, BusinessWeek’s Arik Hesseldahl got a peek at Poliakine’s 2006 startup, Powermat, which was targeted at solving just that problem. Now that Powermat’s arrived as of October 4, this story has finally come full-circle, bringing us to the fun part – what will happen next?
Did I get your attention yet? Curious as to how it works? Check out Wired’s video about it from January of ‘09.
Don’t get me wrong, Powermat isn’t the only player in town, with WildCharge and Duracell’s myGrid aiming for a bit of this business, but that doesn’t mean they won’t make big moves, especially with their products already being out of stock at a number of retailers. In addition to having made some buzz with gadget-heads at CES this year, Powermat’s hit the ground running with a … creative ad campaign this past week.
Check out “What the *bleep*” in office edition:
and in dorm flavor:
Funny advertisements aside, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say that a lot of us hope this is a turn in the right direction for our tech gear. I, for one, am moving a small box full of cables for various cameras, controllers, phones, and so on, with us to Seattle — something that maybe one day we won’t have to be doing anymore. That said, this move to products like Powermat is more than a half-step forward for us all. I say “half-step” because there’s still some decent costs involved here – around $100 for the mat and around $40 for each of the receivers. Additionally, there’s that nasty thing that is going to slow this down, IMHO – the need for the receivers. I’d wager that if this was as easy as us putting our devices down on the mat, these things would sell a lot quicker than they already are, and get past the early adopter audiences just as fast.
Hesseldahl’s original article has a fantastic paragraph that sums up a lot of this, at least in the sense of what will tweak the price ever-so-slightly, or make this one of those things that we’re all just taking for granted a few years from now.
The challenge is getting manufacturers to sign on to a new technology before consumers clamor for it. “It’s like trying to convince cell-phone makers to enable technology that lets people pay for things with their cell phones,” says analyst Charles Golvin of Forrester Research (FORR). “Sure it would be convenient, but people aren’t demanding it. And they aren’t demanding it because it hasn’t been enabled yet.”
So here’s the question? Are you demanding it? If you’re not, then what would it take you to “give up” your plugs?
i have a feeling this stuff will eventually be “regulated.” if not officially, the industry will decide on standards. we’ll reach a point where i can put my device on a pad, the charge is guaranteed and ubiquitous and no extra “pack” will be needed. that’ll happen – and when it does – i’m in.