AT&T snubs Qi wireless charging standard with support for Power Matters Alliance

AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) is trying to bring some order to the fragmented wireless charging industry by supporting the PMA, or the Power Matters Alliance, which is spearheaded by Powermat Technologies and Procter & Gamble. AT&T is seeking a commitment from its handset partners to support the PMA standard. "In an effort to move towards making this a reality for consumers worldwide and in direct support for the public ecosystem rollout led by Powermat, we have asked our device suppliers to provide integrated wireless charging solutions by 2014," AT&T told CNET. The PMA effort will be going up against Qi, which run by the Wireless Power Consortium and is more firmly established in high-end smartphones like the HTC Droid DNA, Nokia (NYSE:NOK) Lumia 920 and Samsung Galaxy S4. Additionally, there is also the Alliance For Wireless Power, or A4WP, which is backed by Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Samsung but it is considered a smaller player in wireless charging right now. Article