Redmond has officially joined the Power Matters Alliance (PMA)

Apr 24, 2014 06:27 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has officially joined the Power Matters Alliance (PMA) that works to develop wireless charging technologies that could be used on a wide array of devices, including tablets and smartphones.

While it’s pretty clear that Microsoft’s users could benefit from wireless charging on their devices sometime in the future, Redmond’s decision to join the alliance also creates new opportunities, including the possibility to access large public wireless charging spots available at some popular locations across the world, including Starbucks and McDonalds.

“Microsoft is a great example of an innovative company that can help fuel adoption of the technology on a large scale in many different areas of consumer electronics,” said PMA President Ron Resnick. “It is critical to get the industry moving in the right direction and create as many options for consumers as possible to fuel the widespread adoption of wireless charging.”

This decision to join the PMA could be part of Microsoft’s efforts to migrate towards a devices and services approach that would help the company focus on some other products beside software.

This significant transition was started by former CEO Steve Ballmer last year when it launched the One Microsoft plan, emphasizing that Redmond is set to deliver a wider array of products, including new tablets and smaller devices such as smart watches.

Of course, the core of all these products will be the existing solutions, such as Windows, Skype, and Bing, Ballmer said back in July 2013, explaining that innovation has become a key priority of the company.

“We will allocate resources and build devices and services that provide compelling, integrated experiences across the many screens in our lives, with maximum return to shareholders. All parts of the company will share and contribute to the success of core offerings, like Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox, Surface, Office 365 and our EA offer, Bing, Skype, Dynamics, Azure and our servers. All parts of the company will contribute to activating high-value experiences for our customers,” Ballmer said.

The new CEO Satya Nadella is talking about innovation with basically every single occasion, also pointing out that Microsoft is working to provide customers with more useful features that could help them get things done.

There’s no doubt that wireless charging could indeed boost the consumer appeal of Windows devices, but it remains to be seen how much time the company actually needs to implement this kind of feature into its upcoming products.