The arrival of the Apple Watch has brought with it a big family of accessories, and owners of the wearable are able to outfit their smartwatches with all variety of alternate bands, bumper cases, and screen protectors. There are also plenty of options when it comes to charging, with accessory manufacturers designing a number of third-party charging stands. So far, though, the implementation with such chargers has been a little less than graceful, requiring users to take the original magnetic charger that shipped with the smartwatch and pop it into these stands. However, that may soon start changing, as we hear that Apple’s beginning to make an Apple Watch charger component available to its MFi partners.

Reportedly, the charger is only currently available to accessory makers in sample quantities, allowing them to start work on new designs, with broader availability of the part arriving at a future date. But in just a few short months, that could mean we see sales get started for charging docks that are ready to go straight out of the box – no need for your existing magnetic charging puck.

Of course, that also means that we’re probably looking at some price hikes when these new docks arrive, but nothing in life is free, and the convince factor – not to mention the greater design flexibility this change affords manufacturers – may well be worth any increased costs.

Source: 9to5 Mac