Another Henry Ford moment for Apple

was much harder to find a place to charge phones.

The company, whose investors include Intel, worked with the likes of Pret a Manger and hotels in New York and San Francisco to install wireless charging points, and has developed software that lets them manage the networks.

Right now, buyers are more curious than committed, but the release of a wirelessly charged iPhone is likely to change that.

Where Apple leads, its competitors typically follow.

In 1998, it removed the floppy disk drive from its iMac computers; and the technology soon became obsolete. The same happened to the CDROM drive and the wired internet port as WiFi networks grew.

It did the same with the iPhone, refusing to support removable batteries and last year ditching the analogue headphone jack. For the most part, the industry has followed. The belief is that the same will happen with wireless charging, making it a ubiquitous smartphone feature compared to the rarity it is today.

Eventually, Bladen believes, wireless charging will be as common across offices, public spaces and restaurants as wireless internet is today.

At present, wireless charging requires a device to be placed on a surface in order to charge it, what the industry calls near-field charging.

The surface, connected to a mains supply, creates a magnetic field that is picked up by electrified copper coils attached to a device’s battery.

This is a stepping stone towards power being beamed around a room, eventually allowing a phone to charge in a pocket, but this is still years away.

Near-field or “inductive” charging will take off first. Sceptics say it will have little benefit in phones, and that having to place a handset on a mat offers little practical improvement over plugging one into a charging cable.

Research from Barclays suggests consumers value the idea well below other potential features, such as greater memory or a bigger screen.

But thinking bigger may unlock wireless charging’s real potential.

By the end of this year, Mercedes will start selling a version of its hybrid S-class that can be charged ANTICIPATION is a rare commodity nowadays. We download TV programmes when we want to, rather than waiting to enjoy each episode at the time of broadcast.

We’re encouraged to take out loans or pay in instalments so we can have whatever we want straight away, rather than saving the money we’ll need first.

Is this a healthy attitude, or are benefits if we delay gratification?

Professor of psychology at Columbia University Walter Mischel tested more than 600 children aged four to six in the ’60s and ’70s.

He wanted to learn how children cope with the challenge of delaying gratification, and what this ability might predict in terms of their subsequent development.

In the experiment, a child sits at a table and is presented with a tempting treat.

The experimenter explains that they may eat the treat straight away if they choose, but if they wait about 15 minutes, they’ll be there by parking it on top of a mat.

Ford and BMW have said they will do the same. Being able to drive on to a charging mat in a car park could help end the “range anxiety” that threatens to hold electric cars back.

Highways England has gone a step further, committing to trialling roads that charge a car as it drives by the end of the year.

Self-driving vehicles would make wireless charging even more crucial. While a human driver may groan about having to get out of the car and plug a charging wire in, cars without a driver will be given two treats. The experimenter then leaves the room and the child is recorded.

Most of the children find it impossible to wait the full 15 minutes to obtain the greater reward, although a sizeable number – about 30% – do.

This procedure is now known as “the marshmallow test”, and it’s been replicated many times all over the world.

Furthermore, a number of the children who took part in the original experiments have been followed up. Those who were able to wait for the larger reward have fared better in a number of ways.

As adolescents, the “delayers” were better able to concentrate, plan and handle stress. They were less likely to exhibit antisocial behaviour or to take illegal drugs, and they generally fared better academically.

Now in middle age, they tend to have lower BMIs, are less aggressive, and score more highly on measures of self-worth.

But what about everyone else? Can we learn to delay gratification? Leading researchers in the field, such as Mischel and incapable of it.

The fleets of electric driverless taxis that Uber and Lyft aim to operate, if they are to be truly autonomous, will have to find their own way of refuelling. As will self-flying electric drones. Amazon, which is trialling drone deliveries in Cambridgeshire, has said its autonomous aircraft have a range of just 30 minutes, meaning they will need constant recharging to make repeated deliveries. Landing on strategically-dotted charging pads could provide a solution.

Wireless charging is a relatively small industry today.

A report from KPMG last year put the size of the market in 2014 at $500-million (R6.7-billion).

But this was expected to grow to $12.6-billion (R168-billion) by 2020.

It pointed to an astonishing growth in the number of patents related to wireless charging that are now filed every year, from 32 in 2006 to 1 048 in 2013.

Despite companies now putting resources in, the technology risks being held back by squabbles over standards.

Two different industry bodies – The Wireless Power Consortium and Airfuel Alliance – are proposing different technologies, which threaten to become the VHS versus Betamax of wireless power.

Deloitte also points out that the radiation created by wireless charging points is higher than that from mobile phones, which have created their own health scares.

Most experts believe the technology is safe, but sensational scare stories could well put users off.

The shops and restaurants that install wireless charging points may also be unwilling to give electricity away for free.

Chargifi, whose software allows companies to manage wireless power networks, says it will be up to individual firms to decide what the trade-off should be.

Few have committed to it wholeheartedly. Starbucks has wireless charging points in nine outlets in London, and Pret a Manger in three. But all eyes are on the iPhone to take the lead.

“Once it happens, everyone will say ‘wow that happened really quickly’,” Bladen says. “It will be Apple that plants the flag for this.” — The Sunday Telegraph Roy Baumeister at Florida State University, think so.

The secret, according to Mischel, is to practise changing your perception of the object you desire or the course of action you wish to take by:

● Create distance. Imagine the desired object has become a photo so it seems far away;

● Distract yourself. Instead of focusing on what you want, turn your attention to some other inviting thought; and

● Visualise negative consequences. Imagine graphically how what you crave could harm you. Mischel used this technique to quit smoking. Whenever he craved a cigarette, he called up the image of a man suffering from lung cancer.

It matters little whether you choose just one of these techniques, or alternate between them. Just keep practising and it could mean greater satisfaction in the long run. — The Daily Telegraph

● Linda Blair is a clinical psychologist and author of a book The Key to Calm