Earlier today we told you about the possibility of the iPhone 6 having an environmentally friendly battery, and it seems Apple is looking at a variety of new ways to power its mobile devices in years to come. Now we have news of more evidence of future iPhones that will feature wireless charging of the device.

AppleInsider has discovered a new Apple patent application that would allow the company to wirelessly power and charge is mobile devices, while they are still in the packaging and on display in retail stores. The idea is being called ‘Active Electronic Media Packaging’, and it’s described as an active packaging system that would provide power and data to devices while they are still in their packaging.

This will allow the company to showcase content and features to potential customers while on display in a store, and would replace the typical labels and other advertising that is found on product packaging now. It would also let the product basically sell itself while it is sitting on the shelves of retailers.

Currently the main design of product packaging is to protect the device itself from damage, but other than that it is pretty limited in what it can do and it seems Apple is looking to change that. The Apple filing states that electronic media package doesn’t allow the interaction or fully view the product while inside the packaging.

Also most of the packaging currently available doesn’t feature some kind of external power source to allow the product to be operational for the consumer to use and see. To actually connect a power supply to each package while in a store would be difficult, so Apple is looking to us an RF power transmitter.

This would allow the packaging to act as a receiver and then provide power to a mobile device such as an iPhone or iPad. With this new packaging it would also mean the device itself would need to be able to charge wirelessly, and would also mean there will be no need to increase the size of the device to install the technology.

The new idea would also allow Apple to conduct functionality such as firmware or software upgrades while the device is still in the stores and sealed up. The patent application was originally filed in December 2011, and has been credited to Michael Rosenblatt who was a former new technologies manager at the company.

His team has previously filed 42 different patent applications related to both the iPhone and iPod, with seventy percent of them being used over a two year timeframe. Do you think we will see this idea in future Apple products?