(Editor: Leona)

Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA is making a bet the average consumer is finally ready to commit to a technology which has admittedly been around for quite some time: wireless inductive charging. IKEA and the Wireless Power Consortium partnered to unveil a small line of non-techy looking bedside tables, lamps, and charging plates with Qi chargers built into the surface, compatible with 80 or so smartphone models designed to work with the wireless charging technology (including the latest Nokia and Google Nexus models) and scheduled for sale this April.

“Through research and home visits, we know that people hate cable mess. They worry about not finding the charger and running out of power. Our new innovative solutions, which integrate wireless charging into home furnishings, will make life at home simpler.” – Jeanette Skjelmose/IKEA

The Qi wireless charging protocol is the most common currently out there, but it’s far from achieving any widespread adoption, making IKEA’s announcement about this technology integration a small surprise. Note: Apple and Samsung devices do not yet support Qi charging out of the box, so for now a number of users will continue plugging in to charge each evening at our desks or bedside tables. But we applaud IKEA’s effort to inch us ever so closer to a life with one less wire to worry about.