n just one year, wireless charging technology has moved from early adoption to mass market in one single leap. According to the latest research from IHS Technology, receiver shipments will more than triple this year – from 55 million in 2014 to over 160 million in 2015. Consumer awareness has also doubled from 34 percent of consumers in 2014 to 76 percent in 2015.

So what has changed? What is the future outlook? And why now?

Wireless charging is not a new technology or a new concept – it’s been charging electric toothbrushes for decades, and it has been available in accessory form in the consumer electronics industry for well over five years. However early issues with alignment sensitivity, differences in approach among technologies and alliances (namely the Wireless Power Consortium, the Power Matters Alliance and the Alliance for Wireless Power) and a lack of clarity on the long-term future have so far made device manufacturers reluctant to take the risk. Manufacturers and infrastructure providers need to guarantee the customer will have a positive interaction the first time they use wireless charging in a new product – the worst case scenario is not that the customer has never heard of the technology, but that the first and only time they used it, they had a negative experience.

A standoff between infrastructure installations and device implementations also exists. After all, why would a device manufacturer design something that has no real-world purpose? And why would an infrastructure provider pay to build a charge point that no device in the world can use?

After years of low-volume shipments, incremental improvements in performance and endless work to raise the profile, the wireless charging market reached critical mass earlier this year with two important product announcements.

Flagship product adoption signals the first shift

Samsung, the number one selling smart phone manufacturer, integrated dual-mode Qi- and PMA-standard charging into the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge flagship products. Marketing efforts have even highlighted the wireless charging element, helping to drive awareness and demand for the technology. The result is 120 million wireless charging receivers forecast to be shipped to the mobile phone market this year, with Samsung shipments leading the way.
The Apple Watch also launched this year with its proprietary magnetic-inductive charging feature. Unlike smartphones, wireless charging in the Apple Watch is not a supplement to wired alternatives. It’s the only way to charge the device, and so it brings a 100 percent attach rate on transmitters. In the wearable device market, the Apple Watch will help drive the total receiver shipments over 20 million in 2015.

Away from the receivers, announcements earlier this year that Starbucks and McDonald’s plan to roll out wireless charging stations in their stores has focused attention on wireless charging in the transmitter market for the hospitality sector. Meanwhile, IKEA’s integration of Qi charging into a range of tables and lamps has again driven up overall awareness of the technology.

The long-term effects in consumer behaviour

All these announcements will help the market for wireless charging triple in size in 2015 – but it’s the impact on consumer awareness that has a greater long-term impact. This year’s survey was targeted at just over 1,000 consumers across the United Kingdom, United States and China – including the question “have you heard of wireless charging technology?” When IHS asked consumers in 2014 if they had heard of wireless charging technology, only 34 percent of consumers were aware of it; however, in 2015 this number doubled to 76 percent. This increase in awareness will help drive acceptance of the use case for wireless charging, only then turning into demand for the technology.

A further positive finding of the survey is that nine out of 10 consumers who have used wireless charging said they were at least “satisfied” with it, suggesting that the wireless charging products available today are already matching consumer needs and expectations. Ninety-percent is effectively the customer retention rate for wireless charging – and any company in the world would be happy with that customer retention rate for any product.

Momentum for the future – but with caution

The market potential for wireless charging technology right now has never been bigger. Consumers are aware of it, and they are starting to demand the technology. They can now find wireless charging in some of the most popular brands, and customer feedback is overwhelmingly positive.

So what could possibly go wrong for wireless charging in the future?

Consumers have already identified that they want to see faster charging speeds – and this pressure will only increase, as the wired market moves towards fast-charging solutions. The biggest threat to wireless charging, however, remains constant: the confusion created by all the competing alliances and technologies.

Interoperability helps ensure a customer has a positive interaction with the technology, and the move toward dual-mode (Qi and PMA) compliant solutions has helped keep customers happy so far. Dual mode solutions work right now, and IHS expects that by 2019 30 percent of the market will use multi-mode receivers capable of complying with all three standards.
Even so, the industry can certainly support more than one standard. There’s no sign that either the Wireless Power Consortium or the newly merged Power Matters Alliance and Alliance for Wireless Power are about to fold any time soon; but perhaps the most substantial threat to the industry is that this competing narrative confuses the market, and therefore limits growth.

Provided by David Green, Research Manager, Power Supplies & Wireless Power, IHS Technology

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