In November 2021, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman claimed that Apple was continuing to work on AirPower, a multi-device charging pad and there were several patents supporting that view. While Apple continues their work, Samsung and others are moving toward in-air charging systems for the home and last week the Korean Patent Office revealed one of Samsung's possible future devices supporting in-air charging.

Samsung Wireless Power Transmission Device

Apple announced their AirPower wireless charging mat in early 2018 and then officially cancelled in March 2019. It was an embarrassment considering that both Samsung and Xiaomi delivered similar 3 product charging mats.

With Xiaomi delivering a charging mat that Apple couldn't, Xiaomi's marketing team went into high gear talking up a future in-air charging system last January called Mi Air Charger. That hype pushed Samsung to start developing their own wireless power transmission device.

Last Thursday, the Korean Patent Office published patent PCT/KR2021/009778 published a Samsung Electronics patent that revealed their work on a wireless power transmission device. 

Samsung notes in their patent filing that it's possible to provide a wireless power transmission device including a resonator that can be mounted on the wireless power transmission device or any location around it and is used to extend a transmission radius of wireless power.

According to various embodiments, in charging a plurality of electronic devices, it is possible to provide a wireless power transmitter capable of covering an entire 360 ​​degrees around the wireless power transmitter.

According to various embodiments, it is possible to provide a wireless power transmitter that provides a high degree of freedom without restrictions on a charging position and a charging direction of an electronic device.

According to various embodiments, it is possible to provide a wireless power transmission device capable of being charged even if it is not placed in a designated location if it is located only within a designated distance.

According to various embodiments, it is possible to provide a wireless power transmission apparatus capable of disposing a resonator at an arbitrary position by providing a resonator separable from a base station, and extending a transmission radius using the resonator.

Below are patent FIGS. 3 and 9 that illustrate Samsung's wireless power transmission device that could charge more than three devices.

Samsung is holding their Galaxy S22 event this Wednesday. Whether Samsung will be able to introduce their new in-air wireless charging system this early on is unknown at this time, though I suspect this is a year or two out. Then again, you never know.

At present it appears that it will be a race between Samsung and Xiaomi as to who delivers an in-air charger first to market, as Apple is still working on a 3-device charging mat and possibly reverse charging. Though to be fair, Apple actually has a patent on this going back to 2013, years ahead of Samsung and Xiaomi. You could check it out here. The image below is from that patent.