If a recent US patent is anything to go by, Apple may be working on an iBattery — a universal charging system for mobile devices and peripherals; a system that can recharge everything from wireless keyboards to smartphones to Kindles.

Apple’s patent, titled “Battery charging system for mobile and accessory device,” outlines a simple setup: You have a host machine (a PC), an iBattery, and a variety of devices that can accept power from the iBattery. You would charge the iBattery inside the host system (which in this case looks to be an iMac with battery slots down the side), and then you plug the iBattery into your keyboard, mouse, or smartphone when they need recharging.

In essence, the iBattery would be just like one of those “emergency” smartphone chargers with a couple of AA batteries inside — but somehow, Apple’s iBattery would have a universal connector on the end that allows it to plug into any other wireless device.

Aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves, though? Don’t we already have a universal charging standard in the form of USB?

It’s important to note that Apple originally filed for this patent way back in 2007 — and amusingly, if you look closely at the image at the top of the story, you’ll see an old brick-type cell phone rather than a smartphone. 2007 was also the year that micro USB was standardized — and so Apple’s iBattery was almost certainly devised before universal USB connectors were the norm. Today, it’s even mandated in the EU that all new smartphones have a micro USB connector.

Remember, it was only last week that Apple retired its decade-old 30-pin connector and replaced it with 9-pin, reversible Lightning — if Apple was truly interested in creating a universal charging system, then it would’ve chosen micro USB as its new connector.

In all likelihood, then — unless Apple becomes so large that it can usurp USB — the iBattery will only be universal to Apple’s own device ecosystem. It’s quite possible that Apple is intending to bring the Lightning connector to other peripherals, such as its wireless keyboards and mice, which would make recharging them much less of a chore — either via a standard Lightning charging cable, or with the iBattery charging system. Even then, though, it still seems a bit backward — why plug a device in at all when we have fast WiFi and inductive wireless charging?

Now read: How USB charging works, or how to avoid blowing up your smartphone