Over a year ago, Apple introduced the world to AirPower, a wireless charging mat that would power your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods (with the wireless case) at the same time. At the time, Apple said AirPower mat would become available to customers sometime in 2018, but the year has come and gone.
First announced in September of 2017, information about AirPower has continued to dwindle, and we have not heard much about it, until now. Unfortunately, Apple couldn’t solve the heating and power challenges it was experiencing and the product failed to be finalized.
Apple has officially announced that it’s pulling the plug on AirPower, for good (via TechCrunch). In a statement to The Jolt Journal, Apple senior VP of hardware Dan Riccio confirmed that AirPower project had indeed been cancelled. Here is the full statement:
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.
Senior VP of Hardware Dan Riccio | Apple
To be fair, Apple never provided official word on the status of AirPower. We did, however, get an update from well-connected Apple blogger John Gruber in September saying that AirPower was running “way too hot” thanks to the multi-coil design that was necessary for the product to properly function. Gruber’s sources indicated that Apple engineers were never optimistic about the product and said that it would “never work.”
