You wouldn’t think a wireless charger would cause so much trouble, but Apple’s AirPower – a wireless charging mat that could juice up three devices at once – seems to have been a real struggle for the company, and an idea that it might now have completely given up on.
First announced in 2017, AirPower was then canceled in 2019; but in March of 2020 there were reports that the project was back on, with Apple supposedly trying to re-engineer the charging coils so that they displace heat more effectively – thereby solving what was reportedly the main issue with the device. However, a leaker now claims AirPower has been abandoned once again.
Jon Prosser (a Twitter leaker with a mixed track record) has said that all AirPower prototyping and testing has been removed from Apple’s 2021 schedule, and that sources doubt it will ever be picked up again.
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All AirPower prototyping / testing has been removed from the schedule for 2021.Sources doubt that it’ll ever be picked back up again.Seems like once again, AirPower is dead.October 26, 2020
While we’d take these claims with a pinch of salt, this sounds believable. For one thing, it was Prosser who previously said AirPower was back in development, so this isn’t at odds with another source.
Plus, now that Apple has added MagSafe charging to the iPhone 12 range, it’s likely to be more focused on that.
There’s also probably less appetite for AirPower now, as a few devices from other companies have since launched that do the same thing. The fact that such devices now exist should mean it’s possible for Apple to fix AirPower’s issues, but there’s probably now less incentive to spend the time doing so.
So while it’s always possible we’ll see AirPower in some form one day, it’s not looking very likely right now.
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Via AppleInsider