Announced in 2017, Apple AirPower looked to bring wireless charging to many of the company’s major product. iPhones, Apple Watches, and even to be shipped AirPod cases were expected to be compatible. Unfortunately, Apple has scrapped AirPower entirely.
According to Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, Apple canceled the product because of how difficult it was to maintain expected standards: “After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project. We apologize to those customers who were looking forward to this launch. We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward.”
According to a report by TechCrunch, the AirPower charger could have been delayed, and eventually cancelled, because of its particularly difficult engineers. difficult to engineer because of its 3D charging coils. Their close proximity to one another would require extremely precise power management; without this, products could overheat, potentially damaging it.
What makes this particularly tough to swallow is that box information on the new AirPod Wireless Charging Case has images with the AirPower charging pad.
AirPower price:
— Ryan Jones (@rjonesy) March 29, 2019
AirPod box shows lightning cable. But lightning to USB-A maxes at 12W. Must be lightning to USB-C.
Wireless charging 3 devices needs 30W+. via https://t.co/C97Smpq644
USB-C 30W charger + cable = $70 alone!
So AirPower must be $149-$199? pic.twitter.com/i6iJX2mJuA
While Apple has cancelled this project, given Riccio’s statement, there’s still some hope that wireless will be featured in bigger ways in Apple products.
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