Better Charging Status
One of the original promises of AirPower is that it would also allow charging status to be passed between devices while charging, so that for example your iPhone could show your AirPods charge level while they’re both placed on the same mat. While Apple’s new mat doesn’t sound like it will support multiple devices, it could provide information to a user’s iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to help them keep track of the charging status of whatever device is placed on the mat.
This would be particularly great for AirPods, which currently don’t provide any charging status at all, requiring you to pick them up and open the cover to connect them to your iPhone in order to check whether they’re fully charged or not.