A New Standard May be Coming Soon: Powermat Acquires PowerKiss

Last night, news emerged that brings the wireless power standards battle a little closer to conclusion. Powermat, one of the wireless charging firms working as part of the PowerMatters Alliance, announced the acquisition of PowerKiss, a Finnish company that had been a part of the Qi alliance. While the Qi alliance still counts some powerful names in its overall line of operations--including Nokia and LG--losing PowerKiss to Powermat, and by extension the PowerMatters Alliance, comes as something of a blow to Qi.

The PowerKiss acquisition gives Powermat not only a little extra credibility in the marketplace, as its own standard is one step closer to becoming the standard now that a rival has disappeared, but also allows Powermat to get a much better foothold in terms of use as well. Powermat's CEO, Ran Poliakine, talked to AllThingsD about plans to step up the use of Powermat. Poliakine had some rather exciting ideas for Powermat, including getting Powermat stations available as part of the furniture of public places. Restaurants, airports, coffee shops, and several other potential locations were noted as a way to not only offer a useful service that encourages users to come back, but also gives Powermat extra opportunity to sell its devices. Powermat even has been available on a trial basis with Starbucks locations in and around Boston, as well as with Madison Square Garden, the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, General Motors and even at Jay-Z's 40 / 40 nightclub. 

This is an interesting plan in its own right, but where the acquisition of PowerKiss comes in is that PowerKiss has a relationship with European McDonald's restaurants similar to the arrangement that Powermat had set up with the Boston Starbucks locations. In those European McDonald's locations, users can come in, enjoy a quick and reasonably tasty lunch or similar break, and at the same time charge a mobile device of choice simply by setting said device down on the table. This allows both the user and the mobile device to get a quick shot of energy when it may be flagging in the early afternoon.

With European McDonald's locations already working with what is now a subsidiary of Powermat, it may prove much easier for Powermat to get into North American McDonald's locations, which would be a substantial coup for Powermat and, by extension, the PowerMatters Alliance. But Qi isn't resting on its laurels, having recently picked up PowerbyProxi. But regardless of the standards, the idea of wireless power is sufficiently gaining ground that, according to Poliakine, will likely be an expected part of going out, much in the same way Wi-Fi is currently, within a year's time.

While the PowerMatters Alliance is certainly gaining ground--having Duracell in its corner is certainly no mean feat--there's plenty of ground left for Qi's group. While only time will tell just which standard will come out on top and end up providing juice for mobile devices in public places, it's clear that neither side means to go out without a fight.