IDT Sees Wireless-Charging Smartphone ‘Design Cycles’ Coming ‘Very, Very Fast’

Samsung picked IDT’s Wireless PowerShare wireless-charging “architecture” for its new Galaxy Note7 smartphone, IDT CEO Gregory Waters said on a Monday earnings call. Preorders on the Galaxy Note7 begin Wednesday in advance of Aug. 19 availability, Samsung said Tuesday (see 1608020036). Wireless charging, “in terms of the way it's progressed, we're extremely pleased and extremely proud of it,” Waters said. IDT continues to land design wins in every “major socket that we want to participate in out there right now,” he said. He also expects “there will be an additional wave of new entrants into wireless charging that we're not putting a specific time frame on,” he said. Major “Tier 1" smartphone and smartwatch suppliers that have yet to field a wireless charging commercial product “have all pretty much completed a wireless charging design,” he said. “So when they make the business decision that it's the right time for them to actually enter the market with wireless charging, I think those design cycles could go very, very fast.” Whether that activity “actually begins to contribute this calendar year” to IDT’s revenue line is “too early to call, but it's coming,” he said.