The small abacus of iPhone 12, the new layout of Apple's wireless charging

 More than a month after the iPhone 12 was released, consumers from all over the world have complained about Apple's body color, battery life, and signal, and then gathered together, pointing the slot to a common goal:

Apple does not send chargers.

Apple’s reason for not sending chargers is very nonsense. For environmental protection, the effect is very significant. The demand for 200 million chargers a year is released in one go, and Apple also asks you to prepare two options: fast charging and wireless Charger Magsafe.

Fast charging is undoubtedly the most practical and realistic method, but it cannot be ignored that Apple is really abacus, but it is playing on wireless charging.

01 Wireless charging, from mutual agreement to a hundred flowers blooming

In fact, wireless charging has matured for many years, both in terms of technology and standards. At present, most of the most mainstream electromagnetic induction technologies in consumer electronics products support the Qi standard protocol specified by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC). The status of this standard in the wireless charging industry is similar to the familiar USB, and it has considerable advantages in compatibility and versatility.

But this one pass with the agreement, there is a fatal flaw:

The Standards Committee is too old. From the 2011 Sharp launch of the first mobile phone supporting Qi protocol wireless charging to the present, the power of Qi protocol still stays at 7.5W, which is more than tens or hundreds of wired fast charging technology, which is simply the gap between bicycles and cars.

Starting with the iPhone 8, Apple used a wireless charging module based on the Qi protocol, which also effectively led a wave of wireless charging popularization, but in the following years, there was no improvement in the charging experience. The wireless charging experience of the iPhone that abides by the Qi protocol It seems that it is no different from Lumia in the Nokia era. It is difficult to say that it is truly satisfactory in terms of charging speed and convenience, and the completion and usability are very low.

At the same time, the wireless charging protocols of various brands in the Android camp are making strides forward.

One year after the release of iPhone X, Huawei's mate20 Pro not only supports wireless charging up to 15W, but also "innovatively realized wireless reverse charging."

That year, putting the Mate20 Pro in the pocket to charge the iPhon e was once a hot topic .

(Huawei wireless charging products)

Since the beginning of this year, the wireless fast charging of various private protocols has entered an arms race. 50W, 40W, and 30W have emerged in endlessly, at least 27W. The more radical Xiaomi and OPPO have achieved 80W and 65W respectively in the laboratory. .

In order not to be left behind by competitors, Apple obviously needs to introduce its own wireless charging technology to prevent falling behind, and the use of the Qi protocol means that users can use MFi (Made For iPhone) standard chargers that are not controlled by Apple to charge. This accessory that bypasses Apple's control is itself a thorn in Apple's eye.

Not only slows the pace, but also delays Apple's making money, kicking off the old Qi agreement, it has become an inevitable choice for Apple. But is Apple’s purpose just to learn Android to make a faster wireless charger?

Not really.

02 Apple's ambitions and subversive killer moves

The pain point of wireless charging is actually the bad user experience.

To sum up, the coil is difficult to couple, the charging speed is slow, and it is not possible to play while charging.

I thought that the mobile phone was just thrown on the charging base before going to bed, but the tragedies of not charging until I went out often happened. It is simply a nightmare for contemporary social animals. With this alone, the advantages of wireless charging fragmented charging are mostly offset.

The charging speed is not as fast as wired fast charging. Others can pick up the cable to play games, but they can only stare at the mobile phone on the charging tray and sigh.

Apple is determined to make a product that subverts charging habits.

Airpower since 2017 is Apple's first attempt. For this reason, Apple once frantically plugged 32 overlapping charging coils on the engineering machine to achieve the effect of seamless charging by throwing the phone on the board. Even the A11 is rumored to be used.

(Airpower)

But with 32 coils stuffed into a small board, the fever problem is obviously a dead end, and finally experienced from skipping tickets to giving up, AirPower also disappeared from people's eyes.

Fortunately, after thinking hard, Apple finally realized that wireless charging can not only change the charging board, but also change the mobile phone. Apple has added magnets to both the receiving end and the transmitting end of the mobile phone, using a simple and rude way to realize the active coupling of the two coils.

This technology of active coupling of two magnets, once named Magsafe, was used on the charging port of MacBook to make connection and disconnection sexy. It also solved the century-old problem of tripping people and falling over computers by charging cables. Now, the name is back on the phone.

Magsafe with magnets has improved the convenience of charging significantly. The coils can be aligned by themselves. Because of the magnetic attraction, they can also be picked up for other operations while charging. What's more important is fast charging. Magsafe will automatically activate Apple's private protocol after the connection is connected. With the 85% conversion efficiency after the technology upgrade, 15W fast charging can be achieved, which is double the improvement of the Qi protocol's 7.5W.

It can be said that Magsafe with relatively conservative charging power may not be the most ideal solution, but there is still no second manufacturer that can achieve the best experience of magnetic charging and fast charging, as well as wireless charging.

It can be expected that Magsafe’s idea will continue to add watches and wireless earphones. At that time, Apple’s original idea: the user returns home, takes off the watch and earphones, takes out the phone, throws it on a charging board, and it starts. The charging scene will become a reality.

It is not difficult for a third party to add magnet components to accessories, but if you have not obtained Apple’s certification, you can still only have a charging experience similar to five volts and one ampere in the Qi protocol. When Apple uses Magsafe to cultivate new user habits, by the way It has regained the standard control of wireless charging, and has not forgotten to introduce the Magsafe series of accessories from chargers to protective cases and even card packs.

The familiar taste of apple is back.

(Accessories with pictures)

03 The unexpected winner behind Magsafe

From the product level, Magsafe is a surprise, this is a product with the ambition to subvert the mobile phone charging experience.

When evaluating Apple’s product strategy, Li Nan, the former head of Meilan, put forward a point of view that domestic mobile phone manufacturers have been confined to pure digital competition, and 4GB of memory must be larger than 3GB; however, the idea of ​​Apple’s product optimization is based on consumer experience. , Maybe the paper parameters are not excellent, such products tend to have a better comprehensive experience and are more popular with consumers.

Airpods are almost the best footnote to this conclusion. The poor sound quality experience and high price not only did not hinder its big sales, but on the contrary, it brought unprecedented commercial success because of its disruptive user experience innovation.

In fact, all important investment opportunities in the consumer electronics industry are inseparable from the judgment of the product itself, especially the size and voice of the brand to the point of Apple, and Apple itself is the outlet. The success of Airpods has allowed the market value of the part-time-worker Luxshare Precision to reach 400 billion yuan; then, what are the opportunities behind the excellent experience of wireless charging and fast charging?

To put it simply, the transmitter, that is, the Magsafe product itself, has a total module cost of 80-120 yuan per unit. The modules and finished products are exclusively supplied by Luxshare Precision. Among the materials, ferrite cores account for 15% of the cost. , Tiantong Electronics and Hengdian DMC each account for 50% of the share; magnets account for 45% of the cost, Hangzhou Quadrant and Huayin Magnet each account for 50% of the share; coils account for 8% of the cost, 100% supplied by Luxshare Precision.

However, in the final analysis, these are just hit workers. If you look closely at Magsafe's press conference, you will find that there seems to be a partner in the Magsafe: Belkin, which will act as an agent for Apple's magnetic wireless charging other than Magsafe, and also obtain Cook’s personal recommendation at the press conference.

The audience shouted: Where is the related household that emerged?

In fact, this related household can be said to have a long history with Apple. This California-based consumer electronics giant with a 35-year history is known for manufacturing a series of computer and mobile phone accessories. On the foundation of the trillions of ecosystems created by Apple, Belkin can be said to have exhausted the dividends of the era of the wave of smart mobile terminals.

Being an iPhone accessory factory can’t actually be said to be a good business. After all, you have to bargain prices with your peers while paying protection fees to Apple. But when the accessories factory recommended by Apple, the days are different. For example, after the release of iPhone 8/X, Belkin’s wireless charging board was quickly put on Apple’s official website, standing on the same starting line as Apple’s original accessories, and even claimed to be "Apple’s official website." The green in the house".

In 2018, Foxconn, who has worked for Apple for many years, finally took the step of making its own brand, acquiring this long-established consumer electronics brand for nearly US$900 million. And Apple also sold personal affection to the old partner's test, and personally yelled at the press conference.

Considering that Apple’s Magsafe accessories are planned for multiple scenarios and product lines such as car, home, protective cover, card case, etc., Belkin is undoubtedly pushed to the top of the air outlet by Apple, and Foxconn has repeatedly broken the brand road. It is likely to open up the situation in mobile phone wireless charging accessories.

04 Ending

On the experience side of consumer electronics in the future, wirelessization has undoubtedly become a definite trend. The two core problems to be solved by wireless experience are information transmission and energy transmission.

With cloud account collaboration and the direct popularization of transmission protocols by various devices (such as the mutual transmission between Apple and Huawei's own devices) and the popularization of TWS headsets, the problem of information transmission has basically come to an end. How to realize energy transmission has become the final threshold for wireless.

For this step, Apple has successively added receiver modules for iPhone, Apple watch, and Airpods, which is precisely the pavement for this.

At the end of 2019, foreign media phonearena had stated that Apple had plans to build a "wireless phone" aimed at providing an iPhone with a "complete wireless experience". In addition to complying with Apple's long-term philosophy, a completely wireless, interfaceless iPhone will become more durable. The interfaceless design makes it more waterproof and wear-resistant, and frees up valuable space inside the phone, which can be used to place a larger capacity battery, additional camera or 5G antenna.

Magsafe, will it be the countdown to wireless phones?