Apple spokesperson told Business Insider that Apple had joined a firm that manufactures wireless charging standard which is widely used; this industry group is known as Wireless Power Consortium.

The spokesperson of WPC said that late last week Apple joined WPC. Qi is a charging standard which WPC manages, among various brands and products that promote wireless charging it guarantees interoperability. A device like Samsung’s Galaxy S7 smartphone is an example which has Qi tech.

The user can charge the device by dropping it on a compatible charging pad when using a Qi charger hence drawing the power without plugging a cord into it, with the pad connected to the wall.

Unlike other smartphone competitors, Apple iPhone 7 does not use wireless charging. You can use a proprietary wireless charging puck to charge the Apple Watch. For other Qi chargers, it is not compatible to the puck.

There is a modified version of Qi that can not be operated with other wireless chargers and this is used by the Apple Watch charger. A former WPC VP gave information in 2015 that the firm made a decision of not presenting the Apple Watch charger that comes with the device which is Qi based for testing its interoperability.

Apple joins significant industry groups to participate in the building of new technologies and get an understanding of where they are heading to, despite their penchant for secrecy. Apple recently hosted a meeting at its headquarters of Unicode Consortium.

A statement was provided by Apple spokesperson that their company is an active member of many standards development organizations as both a contributor and leader. To contribute ideas and participate in open and also collaborate in the development of future wireless charging standards by joining the Wireless Power Consortium. He said that the Apple Company is looking forward to working with WPC and its members.

WPC gave information of adding Apple to its list of members that the firms with the largest share of the market in smartphones are members of WPC and addressing the regularity of wireless charging. WPC said this year they are expecting to see more momentum by the whole ecosystem since the previous year’s Qi had become the important standard for wireless power.

Apple rejected on giving an explanation of their future products, but it is reported that their next model of iPhone will have an added wireless charging, which will be launched this fall.