Apple Officially Cancels AirPower

[TheSapient]

Most people think this was like any other Qi charging mat. You are talking to a wall anyway. A lot of people don't have the skills or aptitude to distinguish a mosquito from a crane fly. I appreciate your effort for trying, but trust me I have tried and I am not getting anywhere. At least I know I am not the only one who understood what they were trying to do. for trying I give them a 10/10. For announcing the product too early I give them a 0. I hope they learned a valuable lesson here.

Reading through this thread, it seems to me that people do understand the difference between the proposed AirPower and more traditional wireless chargers. The difference in perspective is more due to many thinking the ability to place a device anywhere on the mat would not produce a different experience. I tend to agree with this. Yes, opening a door where I can just push anywhere is slightly easier than opening a door with a specific handle or knob, but using a standard door handle is so easy that the actual difference is trivial in practice. Personally, I've been using wireless charges for a few years now, and have them everywhere I typically pull out my phone and set it down. I don't think I put any special effort into hitting the mark, given that you can be quite a bit off center and still have it work.

Maybe I'm special? I can also place a glass on a coaster and a frying pan on a burner. And look at me poking these keyboard keys.

 

[Glasgowuk]

"do we communicate this before releasing the wireless AirPod case?"
"No, lets people buy them under the assumption the Airpower is coming"

 

[klky]

They never promised this “feature.”

Actually you’re right. They never mentioned anything about the speed.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Courage. First project titan and now this. Crazy times at Apple. As someone has said before, they need the ipod nano and ipod touch just so they can practice releasing hardware. Hardware is different.

I don’t see why you would lump AirPower and Titan together. AirPower was pre-announced but then cancelled three months after it’s delivery deadline. Contrast that with project Titan:

Apple never announced project Titan, and never said whether it was cancelled or not. We don’t even know if it is—or ever was—an entire car or just the autonomous driving tech.

We don’t know much, but we do know that as of a year ago, 5,000 were disclosed (had knowledge of its existence) on project Titan and 2,700 needed access to one or more project databases. Also, 1,200 of those are considered “core employees.”

In addition, the first Chinese spy who was arrested with project Titan data, Xiaolang Zhang, had downloaded documents including “prototypes and prototype requirements (power requirements, low voltage requirements, battery system, drivetrain suspension mounts, etc.)”

Oh, we also know they had a layoff of approx 200 employees.

So if you ask me, it appears that Apple’s building a car. But I don’t think you’ll ever be able to buy one. I believe, like others on MR, that Apple will use these vehicles in a TaaS (transportation as a service) capacity.

 

[Oldfash33]

Unreal, Absolutely unreal!

 

[iphone1105]

Apple fan base has turned so soft. Leave this place for a few years, come back, and majority act like their dog just died. It was a charging mat, companies every day cancel things and put things and products being developed aside. Apple has done this before, hell they released a phone that lost signal when you held it. They’ll be fine

 

[Boardiesboi]

Well that’s disappointing and extremely embarrassing for Apple.

Part of the reason I just bought the AirPods 2 with wireless charging case was in anticipation of the AirPower Mat’s release.

Had I known it was never going to be released, I almost certainly would have opted for the cheaper non wireless case. While there are other third party wireless chargers available, I am not excited about the current limitations on charging speed so haven’t purchased any yet. The promoted features of the AirPower Mat offering faster charging of multiple devices together was a little more compelling and that’s what I was waiting for.

One might argue that Apple should offer a refund to customers who purchased the wireless charging case but that’s probably an unrealistic or unreasonable expectation. What’s more interesting to see is if Apple finds itself in serious trouble for false advertising given the AirPower Mat went beyond rumours and was mentioned on officially released products such as the latest AirPods.

You can still get a refund as it’s still within the 14 days return period???

 

[Defthand]

Hoping the modular Mac Pro system isn't another unicorn.

 

[retta283]

That idea is so stupid it makes my brain bleed. Apple isn’t doing anything to spite one guy.

This has been posted on here before, check the iOS 7 threads from 2013... From what was said it was supposed to be a 2-version change but they sped it up.

It might not been entirely spite, but I'm sure Ive was glad to get rid of Forstall's design as the two did not get along well at all.
[doublepost=1553909694][/doublepost]

Hoping the modular Mac Pro system isn't another unicorn.

I think it will come out, but I doubt it will be like the cMP. Most likely a stacks system from what has been said so far, but that could change.

 

[jon9091]

While they’re at it...cancel the Apple TV+ that no one knows what it costs.

 

[nouveau_redneck]

Were still doing this?

I'm not sure what you are doing, son.

 

[smirking]

I’d love to know what the specific engineering issues were. Hopefully one of the insiders will leak the reason.

I've tried one of the third party wireless chargers for my iPhoneX. It sucked. Not only did it charge super slow, it kept disconnecting without any provocation.

 

[return2sendai]

Follows the child care centre at the new Apple campus into oblivion....

 

[iMi]

Let me add one thing. "Didn't meet our exceptions" is a corporate talk for "we couldn't' figure out how to make it work and rushed the announcement." This is an embarrassing blunder and to try to spin it as something positive doesn't really makes sense to me. All this marketing. All this hype. All for a product that was never finished and nowhere ready for the market.

 

[klky]

You can still get a refund as it’s still within the 14 days return period???

I purchased online which does not allow for returns. Not sure if this is the case for all countries.

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

LatestAppleKeynote + AirPowerCanceled === TherapyRequired

 

[Virinprew]

So Tim. May be you should make sure that it works before announcing it. Whatever in your pipeline now.

 

[rafark]

Can't buyers sue Apple? I mean, it could be a case of misleading advertising or something, some people purchased products because of this upcoming product...

 

[michaelant]

I see that there's 1078 comments on this article. Just thought I'd add mine. Be part of something.

 

[trusso]

It's all about bumping those stock prices.

Tim Cook announces AirPower in September 2017, along with the iPhone X.

Nothing happens.

Apple announces cancelation of AirPower after a week's worth of hardware spec-bumps and a big services event.

Hopefully no one notices.

 

[Rookbird]

Hopefully Apple learned a lesson from this. You NEVER announce a new product coming out when you don’t even have a working prototype. You never know what will happen in the design/build process.

 

[daabido]

Apple has done this before, hell they released a phone that lost signal when you held it. They’ll be fine

That only happened when you held it wrong ;-)

 

[Rookbird]

Incredible. The biggest tech company in the world can't build a charging mat.

They can build a charging mat, they just choose to build a charging mat that can do more than is technologically possible at this time.

 

[cpnotebook80]

Hopefully Apple learned a lesson from this. You NEVER announce a new product coming out when you don’t even have a working prototype. You never know what will happen in the design/build process.

+1 - Lets see what happens to the Mac Pro

 

[Glideslope]

God do I miss Bob, Scott, and Steve.