Apple snaps up NZ's PowerbyProxi
Apple is unlikely to keep the development of wireless recharging technology in New Zealand after buying Auckland firm PowerbyProxi, Graeme Muller, the chief executive of technology industry body NZTech forecasts.
Muller said his gut feel was that wireless charging could become ubiquitous in Apple devices within a generation and it would become one of those little-known facts that the technology originated in New Zealand.
Apple – which is the United States' most valuable company – announced on Wednesday that it had bought PowerbyProxi for an undisclosed sum. It confirmed plans to keep the business in New Zealand.
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Auckland entrepreneur Fady Mishriki set up PowerbyProxi in 2007, as a spin-out from Auckland University, with the goal of helping people charge everyday devices such as mobile phones without having to plug them in.
The company now employs about 55 staff and holds more than 300 patents relating to wireless charging.
Shareholders contacted have so far remained silent on what Apple paid for the business.
But Andy Hamilton, the chief executive Auckland's Icehouse technology incubator, which had a 2 per cent stake, said investors had got "a return" and he was excited for early investors such as venture capital company Movac, as well as for Powerbyproxi's founders.
Based on the price paid for the company's shares by earlier investors, the price paid by Apple appears likely to be at least in the high tens of millions and could be into 10-figures.
Apple senior vice president of hardware engineering Dan Riccio said Powerbyproxi's team would be "a great addition as Apple works to create a wireless future".
"We want to bring truly effortless charging to more places and more customers around the world," he said.
Muller said it would surprise him if Apple kept development in New Zealand in the long term.
"Most organisations see there is some cool innovation coming out of New Zealand, and when they buy into that they often try and keep some level of a lab presence here, but it does depend on the company's culture."
Apple was a business that tended to tightly manage and control and its research and development, he said.
But selling out to Apple could be positive if that was the best opportunity open to PowerbyProxi's owners, Muller said.
"I know a lot of people would like to see New Zealand businesses stay in New Zealand and be locally-owned."
But Powerbyproxi's owners would almost certainly re-invest the sale proceeds back into the economy, potentially starting other new businesses and creating a "multiplier effect", he said.
Muller believed people might be wondering in five years why they had ever had to plug-in devices to recharge them.
"My gut feel is this will be a piece of technology that New Zealand has had a hand in being involved in, and a generation from now it won't be associated with New Zealand – it will be this 'cool invention that Apple came up with'.
"But we will be able to point back and say that is another example of some cool technology that was created in New Zealand and then picked up by a larger firm that could do more with it."
Apple shared its plans for wireless charging last month.
AirPower, which is due for release next year, is a wireless charing mat that can simultaneously charge up to three of its new glass-back Apple products at once.
The company did not say how fast the charging would be compared with traditional charging.
Tech firms Belkin and Mophie have both already developed wireless chargers designed for iPhone 8 which Apple sells.
Mishriki said he and his team were thrilled to join Apple. "There is tremendous alignment with our values, and we are excited to continue our growth in Auckland and contribute to the great innovation in wireless charging coming out of New Zealand." .
He was unable to say more as Apple has strict policies on who is allowed to talk publicly.