LG to launch world’s first Qi-enabled Android phone?

LG, the Korean manufacturer that seems to have bounced back from a slump with their Android phones might be revealing a Qi-enabled phone at CES. In case you didn’t know, Qi is an international standard designed by the Wireless Power Consortium to standardize interoperable wireless charging. At the moment we have wireless charging in the form of Energizer/Duracell mats etc but they haven’t been extremely successful because they don’t work with all phones, and they require some clumsy cases in order to function. A Qi standard would mean that all devices that are Qi-certified will be able to use the same wireless chargers- which lead to fewer wires, and the convenience of having less individual chargers. After all, everybody has been in a situation where they forget to bring their charger on vacation, and nobody else has a compatible charger to charge their phone. The Qi standard would solve all that. Sounds like a pretty innovative technology, and with LG being a special guest at the Wireless Power Consortium media event at CES and an Energizer representative mentioning that the first Qi-compatible phones would arrive in 2011, this rumor sounds like it could be on the dot. What do you think?