AirPower Misses Promised 2018 Launch, But Might Not Be Canceled

[now i see it]

So I wonder who dropped the ball, Marketing or Engineering?
Was Marketing so chomping at the bit that they had "faith" Engineering could pull it off in a few months? Or perhaps Engineering felt their annual bonus was tied to the release of this product, so they took a gamble to (tell marketing) that they'd have a working product soon.

Whatever the reason for this boondoggle, it likely reflects constipated communication between the groups.

 

[pete2106]

Was there demand for yet another mobile phone when Motorola, Erickson, and Nokia (colloquially referred to as MEN, in the wireless industry) dominated the market in 2006?

I don't know if that really works as an argument. The iPhone did something totally new that no one had done at the time. The airpower (from what we've seen) won't do anything that the current crop of charging mats don't already do.

 

[nexusrule]

It's too late. A lot of people don't care about this product anymore. They took too long. Everyone has a wireless charger or two already.

Is there even a demand for this product at this point?

I agree. This product would have sold if released alongside or at least very soon after the iPhone 8/X launch which were the first iPhones with wireless capabilty. Right now, like you said, anyone with an Apple phone who wanted wireless charging already has one, at a fraction of the price this thing would cost.

Do you all realise that wireless chargers, as everything made by mankind, don't last forever, people buy new devices and need chargers, people replace chargers when they break and so on and so on? Your logic seems to be only based on the assumption that everyone in the world, past, present and even future, that can be interested in a wireless charger has already bought one. Should they stop producing new TVs and cars then? New ovens? New headphones? New houses? Everyone has them at this point.

They also killed the sale of AirPods to people like me who were looking for wireless earphones but didn't want to wait on the new vapourware edition.

So potentially just you? I wanted AirPods to run, I knew of the new rumoured ones, but I bought the existing ones because I actually needed them.

 

[citysnaps]

I am not worried about it coming out or not, I do not use a lay flat charger for my phone as in that orientation it is not useful for me

I'm not either. Getting so frothed up about whether a company releases a product timely or not, is just bizarre. Might even be a sickness.

I assume there are issues, technical or regulatory, being worked out. I may be going out on a limb here, but when it's ready, I'm guessing Apple might release it to the market.

 

[AnthonyG6]

I want BOTH the AirPower pad AND the AirPods with wireless charging case, not either/or!

 

[MistrSynistr]

This thing will be the best when it finally does get released. It will be priced out of almost everyone's range and all there will be are threads on how it's just a charging mat, why is it $199.

 

[rmoliv]

Tim Cook should step down over this. Ultimately it's his responsibility Apple failed to deliver on this. If he doesn't, the board should fire him.

 

[nexusrule]

I don't know if that really works as an argument. The iPhone did something totally new that no one had done at the time. The airpower (from what we've seen) won't do anything that the current crop of charging mats don't already do.

The argument that doesn't work is: "useless to release a product that already exists". 99% of products (every type of product, not only tech products, from forks to socks, from cars to shelves) that are produced everyday already exists, totally new devices come rarely, but new models of almost everything keeps getting released. Why? Because once the AirPower will be on the market it can be sold, and updated, at least until another better technology comes on the market, and probably even after, consider how many charging cables still are made, and new models of them too, despite wireless charging being a viable alternative.

 

[Johnny Steps]

It is what it is. If it comes out, great! I’ll check out reviews, see if it’s worth picking up. If it doesn’t, so be it. Plenty of alternatives exist.

 

[69Mustang]

Is the only thing different about AirPower is the ability to charge multiple devices at the same time?

That's not the difference. Multi-device Qi charging has been available for years. AirPower's differentiation was the ability to place the device anywhere on the pad to charge. Current Qi charging requires the device to be placed in a specific zone to charge. AirPower was supposed to eliminate that need.

Yeah. At the time it was announced there were not many, if any, chargers that charged the Apple Watch and phone at the same time. Now there are a lot more options, and definitely a lot more that are not $199. The product really doesn't have a place in the market with the price they were originally wanting.

Multi-device chargers have been available for a while. Place anywhere charger is what Apple wanted to do. That still isn't available from anywhere else. The value of such a device is both subjective and suspect, but that is what they want(ed) to do.

 

[nexusrule]

Tim Cook should step down over this. Ultimately it's his responsibility Apple failed to deliver on this. If he doesn't, the board should fire him.

It's not how the real world works.

 

[kemal]

Better never than this late. Not true for the mMac Pro. I fully expect that to ship 27 DEC 2019.

 

[citysnaps]

I don't know if that really works as an argument. The iPhone did something totally new that no one had done at the time. The airpower (from what we've seen) won't do anything that the current crop of charging mats don't already do.

Not quite... Most of the major manufacturers had phones with internet browsers, email, text messaging, cameras, and even apps.

You may not remember that the iPhone was panned hard here on this forum when released (shocker!). Many people thought it would be a flop, for a variety of reasons. The best one, IMO, was that with kids in school being able to triple-click mechanical keyboards so effortlessly when texting friends, that a glass keyboard would be a definite no-go.


"The airpower (from what we've seen) won't do anything that the current crop of charging mats don't already do."

Did you come across some internal Apple Confidential documents or something?

Also...Do you happen to know if the current crop of chargers are truly UL Listed?

 

[spacebro]

Its not a good product idea. We do need a mat containing chargers for each thing, but it doesn't need to be this smart.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I wonder if Apple will announce other cool stuff and not release it until over a year later. In a way, they are their own Macrumors by doing that.

 

[Akrapovic]

Tim Cook should not have to step down because Apple failed to deliver a charging matt on time. That's like asking the CEO of Ford to step down because the air freshners are crap. This isn't a make of break product - it's an accessory.

I'm less concerned with the lateness and more concerned with this idea of one charging matt that is less compatible with a sport loop than the cheap knock-offs are.

 

[bbednarz]

It's too late. A lot of people don't care about this product anymore. They took too long. Everyone has a wireless charger or two already.

Truthfully, no one really ever cared about the product outside of the Apple fans/haters. Most people on the street know nothing about AirPower or that it is delayed. I bet once it is released it sells well depending on the price.

 

[oliversl]

Apple creates problem and then sell solutions. Put that headphone jack in very awkward locations (next to charging port so its difficult to plug in, to the left in a Mac so it messes up with your mouse pad) and then sell AirPods. Then you need to charge your AirPods and your iPhone 8+, so AirPower is the solution. But this time the beta announcement did not work.

In the old days Apple announced products and the next week or morning you could buy them.

 

[tkukoc]

Wonder how many people upgraded their Apple Watch to series 3 in order to take advantage of this type of charging?Only to find out it wasn’t happening till after series 4 was released? I know I am one of them.

 

[SoN1NjA]

i met with tim a few weeks back and he said itll be out in 2020 when i drop my new album. i dont believe him because i dont have an album dropping in 2020.

Thank you Kanyay, very cool!

 

[jetjaguar]

I wish apple would just announce products when they are ready to ship .. none of this ships 6 months to a year later

 

[BigJohno]

I really don't understand why there is an issue releasing this product..... Lot's of other companies have pads that will charge multiple devices at once.

 

[GuruZac]

Better late than never??

Better never than this late. As has been noted, they're too late to the game for most people, and, though it will be probably the nicest charging mat, they're likely going to apply the Apple tax on it. I bet it comes in priced at close to $150, possibly more.

 

[truthertech]

It's too late. A lot of people don't care about this product anymore. They took too long. Everyone has a wireless charger or two already.

"It's too late," is a common misunderstanding of how business works. It assumes markets are finite and time limited, which they aren't. Yes, Apple has missed some sales they could have made, but at the risk of a PR nightmare with overheating issues. You also assume that everyone who wants a wireless charger has already purchased one, that there won't be new purchasers coming into the market, and that no one will want the more advanced Airpad. None of which is true or all of the many manufacturers of wireless chargers would go out of business this year; instead the number of manufacturers are growing.

Many tens of millions will be sold this year and in future years. Apple never planned on capturing anywhere near most of that market and never intended to compete at the low end of $10 chargers. Once again, Apple will end up with a premium product enhancing their ecosystem that will sell millions with a comfortable profit margin.

 

[kruegdude]

I’m not sure. I have an iPhone 6S and don’t intend to upgrade at these ridiculous prices nowadays. So, whenever I do, I’ll be in the market for a wireless charger. I’m sure lots of people are holding out. And true Apple fans will still buy it when it’s released.

But it doesn’t really matter. It’s just a charger and market share isn’t relevant. I find the HomePod and Apple entering the smart home a far bigger failure of 2018. If Alexa and Google Assistant become the defacto standard every third party device supports, then Apple has already lost.

Sigh...you can get an iPhone XR 64G for the same price as that 6S with 64G. No price increase.