Shipments of consumer devices that can be powered or charged wirelessly will grow from 1.5 million in 2009 to almost 1 billion in 2019, according to IMS Research. In its report, “The Growth Potential For Wireless Power and Charging,” the company says that activity in the wireless power industry has increased significantly over the last two years and that the market is now poised for explosive growth.

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Numerous startups offer solutions using conductive, inductive, magnetic resonance, RF, and infrared wireless power technologies. Although their shipments were very low last year, IMS says, their totals will grow rapidly as they are driven by adoption in high-volume applications such as cell phones.

“Initial adoption of wireless power will be for aftermarket add-on solutions, though we predict mass adoption to occur as major cell-phone and notebook OEMs are intending to integrate the technology into their products,” says IMS Research analyst Ryan Sanderson.

In 2009, Dell’s Latitude Z notebook was introduced with integrated wireless charging. At January’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Palm announced that its Pre Plus would ship with the Palm Touchstone Back Cover, making it compatible with its inductive charging dock.

“Other applications, in particular cell phones, will follow suit in 2010, fueled by industry standards such as the low-power interoperability standard, which is under development by the Wireless Power Consortium and due for release in early 2010,” Sanderson says. “These interoperability standards will allow enabled equipment to be used with any wireless power transmitter and will be the ignition for mass adoption.”

IMS Research