Apple just stuffed up. Again. They missed 2018 deadline for their AirPower wireless charging mat. The AirPower wireless charging mat was released at Apple’s September 12th event alongside the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X and Apple Watch Series 3 launch. That’s 476 days ago at the time of writing this article.
The AirPower mat was meant to charge the latest compatible iPhone’s at the time: iPhone 8 and iPhone X, with the latest Apple Watch Series 3, and even AirPods with the new wireless charging case, which is still missing in action, with no word on when it will be released.
This is another miss for Apple. Multiple delays have been seen for Apple products, especially for the iOS platform, including Apple Pay Cash, AirPlay 2 and Messages in iCloud which were released in May 2018, almost exactly one year after releasing the features at WWDC 2019. Hardware delays also include Apple’s AirPods, released alongside the iPhone 7 when they removed the headphone jack for “courage” and for the HomePod – which was delayed for almost two months after it’s initial launch, but Apple at least provided a statement, which would not be so hard for AirPower.
We can’t wait for people to experience HomePod, Apple’s breakthrough wireless speaker for the home, but we need a little more time before it’s ready for our customers. We’ll start shipping in the US, UK and Australia in early 2018.
Apple
We could say that in terms of hardware, Apple usually has a good track record of following through on product announcements – however, since the announcement of AirPower in 2017, Apple has not mentioned AirPower to any news outlet, or in public form. Apple’s March Education Event came and went, with no news on AirPower, WWDC came and went, with no news on AirPower, Apple’s massive September Event came and went, and not only was there no news on AirPower, but no mention of charging at all, and lastly – Apple’s October Event with new iPad Pro’s and even a new MacBook Air announcement, no news on AirPower.
The AirPower deadline itself isn’t a massive issue. It’s the fact that they have said nothing about the product at all, which is very Apple-like, but no less frustrating. In 2018, we have seen hints of AirPower in iOS 12 beta’s, including the iOS 12.1 beta and the iOS 12 Developer beta, where code was mentioned.
The narrative of Coming in 2018, changed to Coming later in 2018 to now “currently unavailable.”. The latest action we saw on this mat was Apple pulling all references of AirPower off its website and online stores after the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max announcements. Apple writer John Gruber, suggested that AirPower was facing overheating problems and may have been “scrubbed.”
There are engineers who looked at AirPower’s design and said it could never work, thermally. … I think they’ve either had to go completely back to the drawing board and start over with an entirely different design, or they’ve decided to give up and they just don’t want to say so.
John Gruber
It looks like now we will be waiting another year, in doubt for when Apple’s AirPower mat will release. Unquestionably we are now asking the question if when has changed to if.
An Apple spokesperson was not immediately available to respond to Appleosophy’s request for comment.
Author: Chris Grainger
Chris is a tech enthusiast always looking for new products and services to try out and share with his awesome community of Apple fellows on Appleosophy!
