Actually, I take it back. That's not fair -- according to their investors they don't have any intention of only making phone chargers;
> And the truth is that Team uBeam doesn’t want to stop at phones. With the explosion of “wearables’ wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to charge your watch, fitness tracker or noise-canceling headphones? What about if elderly people never had to ask a relative or healthcare worker to change the batteries on their hearing aids? The practical uses for uBeam technology is limitless.
Or the company themselves;
> With wires virtually eliminated, TVs can sit in the middle of a room cord-free and light fixtures will become “stick-on” without the need for routed power.
<--Original post-->
That's fair, but it sure seems like the obvious path to getting cell phone charging to work is to get a fixed object charging to work -- at which point, if they'd hired any bizdev people, they'll sell the hell out of the fixed object systems to anyone and everyone.
It's just striking to recollect the many complaints about only easy, derivative ideas being funded when a hard idea with tons of applications is being derided in such an intense fashion.
I'd rather they fund 10 uBeams that could yield useful insights or pivots than 0.
Ambition is great, but it doesn't really mean much unless they can show current, visible results that demonstrate they might actually get there. When Elon Musk says he's launching a rocket to Mars in 2 years time we all get pretty excited because he's already launched a rocket to transfer orbit today. He's demonstrated that he can bring a similar thing to the market. If I had $80m I could pay SpaceX to launch something in to space.
When uBeam say they're going to make wires a thing of the past, I will remain skeptical until they have a product on a shelf that I can buy. Until then I am as excited about their wireless power transmission as I am by any other startup in the same space - it's a great idea, but it needs to be seen.
Agreed, and I have no inside info at all -- they'll probably fail even, but it seems like there's a gulf between cautious optimism and whatever is going on here. As for the SpaceX comparison, if they do indeed send a mission to Mars in 2018, it will have been 16 years since the company was first founded with Elon's intention to go to Mars and 10 years after they first achieved orbit.. Hard things take time!
Actually, I take it back. That's not fair -- according to their investors they don't have any intention of only making phone chargers;
> And the truth is that Team uBeam doesn’t want to stop at phones. With the explosion of “wearables’ wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to charge your watch, fitness tracker or noise-canceling headphones? What about if elderly people never had to ask a relative or healthcare worker to change the batteries on their hearing aids? The practical uses for uBeam technology is limitless.
Or the company themselves;
> With wires virtually eliminated, TVs can sit in the middle of a room cord-free and light fixtures will become “stick-on” without the need for routed power.
<--Original post-->
That's fair, but it sure seems like the obvious path to getting cell phone charging to work is to get a fixed object charging to work -- at which point, if they'd hired any bizdev people, they'll sell the hell out of the fixed object systems to anyone and everyone.
It's just striking to recollect the many complaints about only easy, derivative ideas being funded when a hard idea with tons of applications is being derided in such an intense fashion.
I'd rather they fund 10 uBeams that could yield useful insights or pivots than 0.