A number of domestic suppliers are poised to benefit from an expected boom in wireless charging solutions for wearable devices to be propelled by the release of Apple’s iWatch toward the end of the second quarter of this year.
Research institute IHS estimates that the market for charging wearable devices wirelessly will reach US$480 million by the end of this year, expanding 31 times from the US$15 million recorded last year.
However, IHS said that Apple’s iWatch is expected to take the majority of the market with its proprietary MagSafe solution.
Amid expectations of Apple’s dominance, revenue prospects could improve for local integrated circuit design firms, including Generalplus Technology Inc (凌通科技), MediaTek Inc (聯發科), Holtek Semiconductor Inc (盛群半導體), ENE Technology Inc (迅杰科技), Richtek Technology Corp (立錡) and Anpec Electronics Corp (茂達電子).
In particular, Generalplus in 2013 was the first domestic firm to be certified under the Qi inductive power standard — created by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPS) in 2008 and widely adopted by smartphone makers.
The company also unveiled a new chipset that allows a single induction coil to perform power transmission and reception during charging at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas from Jan. 6 to Jan. 9.
The company said the new solution has been approved by the consortium and enables wireless charging between different devices.
MediaTek also demonstrated a multimode wireless charger using its MT3188 circuit at CES. In addition to Qi, the charger has been certified by the Power Matters Alliance, a global industry group dedicated to wireless power technologies.
Similar Qi-certified products by Holtek, ENE, Richtek and Anpec are expected this year.
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