The Wireless Power Consortium and Apple are working on a next-generation “Qi2” wireless charging standard based on MagSafe, set to arrive by the end of 2023
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes a decade-long loop for Apple's charging strategy. After 2016 reports of long-range wireless charging that never shipped, Apple joined the Wireless Power Consortium in early 2017 and then built MagSafe as a proprietary magnetic ecosystem around the iPhone 12. Qi2 is the moment that proprietary hardware becomes the consortium's open baseline.
The significance is directional: the consortium is adopting Apple's magnet-and-alignment design rather than Apple adopting an existing open spec, which is why the follow-up coverage matters — by November 2023 the consortium reported 100+ devices already in or waiting for Qi v2.0 certification, targeting holiday availability.
First-order effects
- Accessory makers gain a licensed path to build MagSafe-style magnetic alignment into third-party chargers without reverse-engineering Apple's hardware, and iPhone users get cross-brand chargers that snap on correctly.
Second-order effects
- Android manufacturers face pressure to adopt Qi2's magnetic profile or ship phones that miss out on the growing pool of certified snap-on chargers and battery packs — a gap the consortium's later Qi2 25W launch with major Android smartphones confirms was closed.
Third-order effects
- Wireless charging consolidates around a single certified magnet-plus-power standard governed by the consortium, shifting the industry from vendor-proprietary ecosystems toward one interoperable accessory platform where certification testing is the gatekeeper.
The trend: Smartphone wireless charging is converging from competing proprietary ecosystems onto a single consortium-certified magnetic standard, with Apple's MagSafe design as its template.