The fate of Apple’s AirPower charging mat, that was supposed to wirelessly charge an iPhone, AirPods, and an Apple Watch, is uncertain no longer. We’ve been expecting some kind of cancellation for a while and that’s unfortunately a correct expectation. Apple’s AirPower mat, rather than going into production, has been canned.
Late last year the AirPower mat was put in doubt when word leaked out about engineering problems Apple had to overcome. The charging mat should have charged three very different devices at once. That’s not too hard to execute but Apple was playing on hard mode. AirPower should have done so from anywhere on the charger. Without users having to think about the placement of their iPhone, Watch, or set of AirPods. Thermal issues were cited as being the roadblock to Apple being innovative in yet another sphere. It turns out… those concerns were accurate.
Technical difficulties
Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering Dan Riccio confirmed the cancellation, saying “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.”
If you’ve been waiting for Apple to jump into action before buying a wireless charger for your shiny new iPhone, stop. Waiting, that is. You can cave and buy a Qi-compatible charging mat from… just about anyone else now. Apple’s promised device isn’t coming, at least not for a while. We’ve got no doubt that Apple’s gone back to the drawing board to create something else to sell us.
Source: Ars Technica