Why do no smartwatches have wireless charging?

[pcman2000]

It seems like such an obvious feature. Look at the Neptune Pine that Linus backed. It claims 5 days of standby time, but it charges through USB.

 

I'm honestly fine with a smartwatch with ~2 day battery life, as long as it has built in wireless charging and comes with a wireless charging mat. It would be so easy - just leave the mat on your bedside table and put your watch on the mat when you sleep. It's so much more useful than MicroUSB (Galaxy Gear, Neptune Pine) or a propriety connector (Pebble).

 

This would at least solve half of the problem of smartwatches having terrible battery life - make it easy to charge.

[T.Vengeance]

Probably makes them too thick; at least much more than they already are.

[Maskot]

Probably makes them too thick; at least much more than they already are.

A wireless charging feature would only add .5mm to the thickness, there was no excuse, I'd like to see this feature added and the stand the watch comes on be the charger.

[Xhavalor]

It's a obvious feature, alright.

 

But has that stopped companies from releasing new devices that lack obvious features? 

Certainly not. Happens all the time; "It would've been better if Company X had moved this port somewhere else."

"They should have included X feature to make it more efficient."

 

Companies make seemingly stupid mistakes all the time, especially on relatively new platforms such as the smartwatch. 

[andyrewwer]

Umm, well I backed a kickstarted a while back, which should ship for christmas, it was a smart watch with wireless charging!

Here is a link

[VAITO]

It's a obvious feature, alright.

 

But has that stopped companies from releasing new devices that lack obvious features? 

Certainly not. Happens all the time; "It would've been better if Company X had moved this port somewhere else."

"They should have included X feature to make it more efficient."

 

Companies make seemingly stupid mistakes all the time, especially on relatively new platforms such as the smartwatch. 

 

Companies aren't as stupid as we make them out to be, they produce many prototypes and get feedback and of course obvious things come up but i'm 100% sure there is a reason why they didn't fix/add certain features of products. Some of the simplest things such as moving a port to the opposite side of a smartphone may consider re-planning everything.

[Unhelpful]

Because people own patents.

[pcman2000]

Because people own patents.

 

AFAIK The Qi wireless charging standard is completely open and anyone can use it.

[rhyseyness]

Maybe it wouldn't have been able to "deal with" the heat generated from wireless charging?

[brob]

They need something for 2.0.

[rentaspoon]

Because it would be another thing you'd have to carry to work/holiday etc. rather than the 1 usb cable we all use nowadays

[Oshino Shinobu]

The Qualcomm Toq has wireless charging....  http://toq.qualcomm.com/product/features

[T.Vengeance]

A wireless charging feature would only add .5mm to the thickness, there was no excuse, I'd like to see this feature added and the stand the watch comes on be the charger.

Well of course I don't have data to back this up. Just speaking off the top of my head, a smaller diameter (since a smartwatch is much smaller than a phone) would have less turns on the coils. This would mean less voltage transferred, and a much slower charge. So the only way to avoid is to keep the same amount of turns by either decreasing the wire thickness thereby increasing resistance, or...increasing the height, and therefore the thickness of the coil.

[Xhavalor]

Companies aren't as stupid as we make them out to be, they produce many prototypes and get feedback and of course obvious things come up but i'm 100% sure there is a reason why they didn't fix/add certain features of products. Some of the simplest things such as moving a port to the opposite side of a smartphone may consider re-planning everything.

 

I agree.

But, uh, see "seemingly".

[Maskot]

Well of course I don't have data to back this up. Just speaking off the top of my head, a smaller diameter (since a smartwatch is much smaller than a phone) would have less turns on the coils. This would mean less voltage transferred, and a much slower charge. So the only way to avoid is to keep the same amount of turns by either decreasing the wire thickness thereby increasing resistance, or...increasing the height, and therefore the thickness of the coil.

... It would extend into the band...