Plugging things in is no fun, especially when a certain company refuses to embrace industry-standard plugs. Wireless charging is an obvious solution, which has been embraced by many Android manufacturers but has remained conspicuously absent from the iPhone. That might be about to change.
Wistron is a manufacturer in India, which Apple recently added to its roster to increase market share in the country and bring prices down. Yesterday, on Wednesday, Wistron’s CEO Robert Hwang highlighted that the next generation of iPhones will include “new features like waterproof and wireless charging.”
Hwang was talking about the increased complexity of manufacturing over previous iPhone generations, and since right now Wistron only makes the iPhone SE, it’s probable that the waterproofing he’s referring to is the same level of water resistance that the iPhone 7 has. But the mention of wireless charging is a big slip-up and a nice ray of hope for anyone who has been begging for this feature.
Other signs and rumors have pointed to wireless charging for the next iPhone, not least of which was a note from Ming-Chi Kuo, a typically reliable analyst at KGI Securities, back in February predicting the exact feature. Then a schematic leaked in April of unknown provenance and legitimacy, which showed a large pad the exact shape of a wireless charging antenna:
And a Reddit post a couple of days ago showed a purported font and back panel. The back panel is glass, which is another important factor for wireless charging:
This is more evidence than we usually have at this time about an upcoming iPhone, but it’s still far enough away from launch that things could change between now and then. (Apple usually announces its iPhones in September, and the next iPhone has been rumored to be delayed.) But hopefully all our dreams come true and iPhone users can finally enter the wireless charging era.
