Qi is dead

[boo516]

I know this isn't really microsoft news. But Starbucks just announced putting PMA in all their stores in a national rollout. Who still has faith in Qi? I know I'm still holding on to my ICON.


http://www.cnbc.com/id/102199605

 

[xandros9]

plenty do, PMA targets venues, Qi targets manufacturers. You could argue PMA is dead since its built into approximately zero phones.

I'm wondering why it feels so many people are so quick to jump to a "he's dead Jim!" verdict. No it's not exactly dead. Palm's Touchstone is probably dead, not this standard. Not until it isn't used anymore or so by anything I guess.

 

[jmshub]

There's also the Ti chip that supports Qi and PMA, making this ridiculous format war obsolete, maybe before PMA ever even sees noticeable market share.

 

[theefman]

Vastly overstating the influence of Starbucks. PMA is so irrelevant that their one big carrier supporter ATT is back behind the Qi standard with the Lumia 830. If an actual phone vendor seemingly doesn't see the value I'm not sure how a coffee house will change things. Dead indeed, more like someone just paid Starbucks a wad of cash for this.

 

[piaqt]

Off-topic, but... My brother calls Starbuck's "coffee for people who don't like coffee".

 

[ashram]

Off-topic, but... My brother calls Starbuck's "coffee for people who don't like coffee".

more like hot chocolate than coffee!
On topic, PMA thought adding it to starbucks would help push adoption, but most cellular devices using wireless charging are using Qi, so it seems like a waste of time and money for starbucks.

 

[HeyCori]

Off-topic, but... My brother calls Starbuck's "coffee for people who don't like coffee".

Starbucks coffee can be extremely bitter.

But dat blonde roast though!

 

[JohnStrk]

Qi might be dead once the iPhone offers PMA built in but until then it's still alive. That said hopefully Dunkin Donuts responds by going with Qi. Lol.

 

[xandros9]

Qi might be dead once the iPhone offers PMA built in but until then it's still alive. That said hopefully Dunkin Donuts responds by going with Qi. Lol.

Knowing Apple, they're probably hard at work on a third standard for the sake of being different and appearing to do it better.

 

[BobLobIaw]

Starbucks coffee can be extremely bitter.

But dat blonde roast though!

My grandfather used to say "that Starbucks coffee is burnt!"

I also like dat blonde roast....

 

[GSOgymrat]

If Qi charging is dead why is it in Android flagships like Nexus 6, LG G3 and Droid?

 

[carlson03]

My grandfather used to say "that Starbucks coffee is burnt!"

I also like dat blonde roast....

Totally agree, I don't care what starbucks does, I can't stand that place. Mcdonalds coffe is half the cost and very good

 

[boo516]

Sorry I wanted to add a question mark to the title but you can't edit titles :/. Also I don't think I'm overestimating Starbuck's power, they are a huge factor in driving adoption of technologies. Public wifi in the US was largely driven by Starbucks.

 

[GSOgymrat]

Of course this stupid ring you have to buy for $10 is only for iPhone and Android. :eck:

 

[boo516]

Of course this stupid ring you have to buy for $10 is only for iPhone and Android. :eck:

It's free right now for people in the bay area (where they are rolling out PMA for starbucks first).

 

[S640]

They announced this months ago, and the first thing I thought was "oh man, they have some inside info that the next iPhone (the iP6 hadn't been announced at that time) will have PMA changing." I was surprised to see that it didn't end up having PMA charging and there are still very few phones that do.

 

[GSOgymrat]

But why bother with wireless charging at all?

Guiste said the decision came after years of watching customers get on their hands and knees searching for outlets.

"This is just a much more elegant solution," he said.

Elegant perhaps but a more practical solution would be incorporating electrical outlets near surfaces so people could charge their laptops and tablets, not just their PMA enabled phones.

 

[xandros9]

Elegant perhaps but a more practical solution would be incorporating electrical outlets near surfaces so people could charge their laptops and tablets, not just their PMA enabled phones.

or maybe actually using a standard actually used by phone manufacturers too

I fear Starbucks has been bamboozled here.

 

[ashram]

I fear Starbucks has been bamboozled here.

Starbucks and AT&T

 

[Nabkawe5]

The only reason PMA exists is because of Qualcomm, but as the benefits don't out weigh the costs it hasn't picked up yet, Personally although I have Qi charging I'm hard pressed to use them when my Nokia charger can get me 50% in less than 90 mins.