CES 2010: No More Cable Bondage

This week at CES Unveiled, a company called Power Mat technologies created a lot of buzz around a product designed to charge mobile devices "wirelessly." The company remains mum on the tech behind this innovation, calling it proprietary information. We can assume that it, like many new devices hitting the market, functions through magnetic induction.

Power Mat's product is, befittingly, a mat with three charging pads, enabling to charge three devices (cell phones, PDAs, iPods, and so on) at the same time. Currently you need to attach a sleeve to the device to enable charging. The product appeared to function as advertised, with interested media handing over their phones (I even saw a sweet new Nexus One) to be placed on the charging mat, with a cheerful tone greeting the delighted onlookers.

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Ok, so this isn't the most amazing, futuristic product out there. I mean I've been charging my toothbrush that way for a couple of years now. Why should you care about it, then?

Up until recently, cell phone (and other mobile device) companies have refused to standardize on how to charge their products. USB was a great thing for consumers to hit the market, and greatly simplified things, but we still have a number of different connectors. Mini USB, Micro USB, USB A, USB B...the list goes on.

Not to mention the few companies who stick to proprietary connectors/dongles (*cough*Kodak*cough*) even though it really is a pain for their customers. One can only assume that the reason for this has to do with money, with squeezing out a few extra dollars, to eek out a tiny extension of those slim profit margins (or huge, if you're Apple).

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Soon, though, consumers are going to have another option, and this option is going to be a game changer. How you charge your mobile devices may not be a very glamourous topic, and most consumers don't really give it a second thought...until they're caught without their charger and are stuck paying more than $30 for a new one at their local Best Buy. Or $20 for a simple cable that has the right connector on it. Imagine if your car, your home, and even public places simply had little pads that functioned to charge every small device you owned. Anywhere. No matter who manufactured it, and no matter how tightly they control hardware design.

I think this is going to be one of those technologies that people shrug their shoulders and say "meh" about...until one day, they suddenly think to themselves, "How in the world did I ever live without this?"

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