Kanex (Booth #8906) will show at CES a line of MFi-certified Apple Watch wireless charging accessories under the GoPower name, said the company in a Thursday announcement. The chargers use the magnetic inductive charging system used in the Apple Watch, said the company. The GoPower Watch Stand ($79) charges the 38mm and 42mm Apple Watch models and has a USB port on the back to simultaneously charge a smartphone or tablet, said the company. Kanex’s GoPower Watch Mini ($59) is a portable charging disc small enough to hang on a keychain and it delivers one full extra change to the Watch. Both chargers are due in February.

Nordic Semiconductor (booth #44744) will bow at CES a wearable device that integrates an AirFuel power receive unit, said the company in a Thursday announcement. It also will highlight its nRF52 series SoCs, based on Bluetooth low energy (BLE) for wearable contactless payments. In its home automation portfolio, Nordic will demonstrate two technologies: one based on BLE and another using the Thread protocol based on the IEEE 802.15.4 low-power wireless network standard. It will show its latest RF protocol stack supporting Bluetooth 5 and a reference design targeting remote control OEMs and manufacturers of smart TVs, set-top boxes and streaming media players, the company said.

Aircharge, maker of Qi wireless charging technology, installed wireless charging units in public locations at London’s Heathrow Airport, said a company announcement Friday. Travelers can place phones with built-in Qi on one of the Aircharge units in Rhubarb restaurant at Terminal 3 and Pilots Bar & Kitchen at Terminal 5, said the company. Charging facilities are also available in the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse and Novotel and Ibis hotels at Heathrow. The Aircharge app can point users to the nearest of 4,000 public wireless charging stations worldwide, it said.

A global survey commissioned by the Wireless Power Consortium said 75 percent of consumers experience “battery anxiety” at least once a week, with 36 percent reporting anxiety over remaining battery life at least once a day. Seventy percent believe access to a wireless charging accessory would lessen their concerns over losing juice in their smartphones, the consortium reported. More than nine in 10 consumers who haven't used wireless charging viewed it as appealing, with 79 percent expressing intent to buy a wireless charging product in the near future, said WPC. Three-quarters said they would use wireless chargers if the technology were built into their smartphone. WPC expects the perceived value of wireless charging to increase as it’s adopted more broadly in products such as laptops and power tools, said Chairman Menno Treffers on Thursday. WPC’s Qi wireless charging technology is used in 60 car models, 4,000 public locations in Europe, 80 models of smartphones and more than 900 tested wireless charging accessories, it said. The survey reached 2,000 consumers in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

ON Semiconductor bowed a development kit to help wearables makers develop differentiated products, while shortening time to market and lowering engineering costs, the company announced Tuesday. The WDK1.0 incorporates a DC-DC converter for power management, battery charger IC, fuel gauge and 10-watt wireless charging front-end controller based on the AirFuel wireless charging specification. Wireless connectivity is provided by an ultra-low power, multi-protocol SoC from Nordic Semiconductor combining a 32-bit ARM Cortex processor core and a 2.4 GHz transceiver supporting Bluetooth Low Energy and other wireless technologies, it said. A compatible app is available at Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

Qualcomm signed a licensing agreement with Joyson Group subsidiary Preh for wireless electric vehicle charging (WEVC), it said in a Tuesday announcement. Halo WEVC technology will be part of Preh’s product portfolio for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle manufacturers. Preh will develop, make and supply WEVC systems based on Qualcomm Halo technology, and Qualcomm will provide technical support, it said. Preh is in discussions with several global automotive manufacturers for advanced WEVC programs, said Qualcomm.

Lumen Australia will develop, make and supply wireless electric vehicle charging (WEVC) systems based on Qualcomm’s Halo WEVC technology, under an agreement announced by the companies Friday. Lumen will include Halo technology in its product portfolio and commercialize WEVC systems for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, plus wireless charging infrastructure companies, they said. Qualcomm is providing Lumen a “comprehensive technology transfer” that will accelerate time to market with a "commercially and technically viable" WEVC system and support future improved WEVC designs, said Steve Pazol, Qualcomm general manager-wireless charging. The agreement also expands Qualcomm's network of automotive component suppliers in the Asia-Pacific market, he said.

German office furniture company Sedus Stoll will demonstrate what it called the first integrated wireless charging for laptops at Orgatec 2016 Tuesday-Saturday in Cologne, Germany. It will spotlight ZENS-based Qi-based wireless charging for HP laptops, and furniture in the Sedus booth will be outfitted with Qi wireless charging for smartphones, smartwatches and tablets, it said.

LG Innotek announced commercialization of the first 15-watt wireless charging pad that allows charging at a rate comparable to wired solutions. The pad, compatible with standards from the Wireless Power Consortium, begins charging when a compatible phone is placed on the pad, said LG in a news release. Offering wireless charging that’s three times as fast as an existing 5-watt wireless module, the LG pad can charge a depleted battery to half power within 30 minutes, said the company. The chance of overheating is minimized by the use of an embedded sensor that shuts off charging when a specified temperature is reached, reducing the risk of “explosion of the battery” and performance degradation, said LG. The design can be modified for embedded solutions that could be used in cars and furniture, said the company.

The number of devices capable of wireless charging will pass the 200 million unit mark for the first time this year, but the market will fall short of previous forecasts, said a Tuesday IHS Markit report. IHS had called for shipments of 250 million receivers this year. Contributing to the shortfall were the lack of wireless charging in flagship smartphones such as the iPhone 7 and delivery delays for the first resonant receiver systems and wireless charging-enabled laptops, said IHS. In the automotive market, in-cabin wireless charging continues to grow, but the first OEM wireless electric vehicles won’t be launched until late 2017, said IHS. Mercedes-Benz is the first manufacturer to announce intent to launch wireless charging with the 2017 S-Class 500e, it said. Mobile phones and wearables have driven growth of 40 percent over 2015 levels with many customers experiencing wireless charging for the first time, said IHS. A quarter of consumers have used wireless charging and more than 98 percent would choose the feature again on their next phone, it said. Adoption of wireless charging will ramp up, said IHS, which still predicts the market will exceed a billion annual receiver shipments per year by 2020, led by mobile phones and wearables.