Apple Officially Cancels AirPower

[Tozovac]

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.

In the days after introducing iOS 7 to my then 2-year old iPhone 4 (which iOS 7 bricked), I read that Jony stated something like “everything unnecessary has been stripped away and only the necessary has been kept.” Like adding reverb sound to the off switch, or revising the industry-wide signal strength bars to 5 tiny circles, or removing context-providing gridlines/shading/borders/buttons, or changing the iPhotos background to white (still waiting for movie theaters to go to lights-on to match that improvement). I.e., nothing in iOS 7 was change for the sake of change away from Forstall's iOS 6.

Disappointing about AirPower though. If only Apple had a design Genius.
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Think of all the felt backgrounds and comic sans we’ve been robbed of.

There's a big difference between moving on past arguably cheesy stylistic choices and arbitrarily abandoning decades-developed UIx principles for new personal stylistic preferences.
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Totally agree with you on this one. At what point will those on the board say hey it might be time for a change of pace.

Change for the sake of real improvement instead of style/fashion and change for the sake of change? Now THAT would be a good change by AAPL for once lately. Doesn't take a Design Genius to see the genius in that!

 

[dor2201]

Maybe it's just a April 1 joke?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/maybe-its-just-a-april-1-joke.2175793/

 

[ImaxGuy]

‘Same, bought my Nomad stations (w/the watch charger) literally 20 mins after the AirPower news dropped.”

Exactly what I did as well

 

[clauzzz203]

Maybe they couldn’t price it high enough

 

[Pentium]

At least we won't see posts about this anymore...old technology anyway.... 10 years maybe...

 

[jonnysods]

Yeah, wish they'd take the same tack with the Mac Pro "update" - just admit that it was a vaporware product which they gave up on after 2013.

Or the new displays - I'm very interested in seeing new ones, and it was so weird for them to talk about it 2 years ago with no sniff of them. Still using a 27" Thunderbolt display!

 

[manu chao]

Erm. do your research first old boy before you start talking about things you obviously know nothing about!!! Clue.. Google nomad charging mat. apple watch edition!! I think the clue is in the name!!! You can eat your humble pie later...

The Nomad Charging Mat (Apple Watch Edition) literally is an Apple Watch charging puck glued/stitched/attached to the side of a standard Qi charging mat, exactly as I said. Maybe you should google how Apple's AirPower was supposed to work (hint: it involved putting the Watch flat down on the charging mat without any particular alignment).
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Perhaps, but why is it that Apple doesn't create such a device?

Not interesting enough for them. Anybody could do it, nothing that they could charge top dollar for by being unique in the way it functions. Same reason they haven't released a plain Qi charging mat just for charging the phone alone.

 

[definitive]

They're still selling Macbooks with the buggy keyboard. How did that achieve their high level of standards? What's the real story here?

 

[I7guy]

For anyone interested, MKBHD released an explanation of what seems to have happened here.

Long story short, it appears that Apple couldn’t solve the “put your devices anywhere on the mat” problem which sounds trivial, but is a big deal. You’d have to have a ton of coils overlaying each other and figure out what to do with all the heat generated. It would have been an incredible feat of engineering if they pulled it off.

I know there are lots of disappointed people, and Apple does look kinda goofy here, but kudos to them for giving it a shot. I think the real mistake was announcing it too early. And let’s be honest, the writing has been on the wall for a looooong time.

I think Apple may have pulled the plug on AirPower but not the entire idea. It’s un-Apple like in the way it was handled but maybe apple had a reason to do it this way. (Although I cant fathom why)

 

[CarpalMac]

What I'm really waiting for is the headline: "Apple Cancels Butterfly Keyboard"

Is this the most upvoted post ever on MR? Not seen a higher one that I can recall.

How very revealing...

 

[4jasontv]

How about reading your own posts and my replies back in order and then understanding.

I like how you added in the part of my last message that wasn't a reply to you at all. Great job.

I never said what you claimed. I said I made the purchase with the understanding that AirPower was coming. It influenced my decision to buy. I never said it was the only reason like you claimed.

 

[OneMike]

Nah man. This was supposed to charge THREE devices at once. Then it looked like only two.

Neither way, most wireless chargers charge only 1 device at a time. People would’ve bought this.

People yes, but how many... we’ll never know. There are three device chargers on amazon from the $40 range.

Price was never announced, but it’s safe to assume the Apple charger would be more than $40 since a single lightning cable is $19.

I won’t speculate any further since at this point it’s just opinion that we’ll never be able to confirm. Or maybe in the future at some point they’ll revisit it.

 

[Blaze4G]

People yes, but how many... we’ll never know. There are three device chargers on amazon from the $40 range.

Price was never announced, but it’s safe to assume the Apple charger would be more than $40 since a single lightning cable is $19.

I won’t speculate any further since at this point it’s just opinion that we’ll never be able to confirm. Or maybe in the future at some point they’ll revisit it.

If the price for Airpods wireless case is 79.99 I can't see the AirPower being less than 149.99. wouldn't be shocked if their target price was 199.99.

 

[trifid]

The Nomad Charging Mat (Apple Watch Edition) literally is an Apple Watch charging puck glued/stitched/attached to the side of a standard Qi charging mat, exactly as I said. Maybe you should google how Apple's AirPower was supposed to work (hint: it involved putting the Watch flat down on the charging mat without any particular alignment).

Quick question.. how do you place Apple Watch with metal bands flat on Airpower?

You can't... hence Airpower's concept was flawed from the start, Nomad's works on all and the fact that it's magnetic gives you a pleasant experience that it snaps into place.

 

[Blaze4G]

I agree entirely.

But trying to do the highly improbable is innovative, is my point.

I disagree. Any company can try to do the improbable...would you call them innovative? When they actually DO something innovative then I can say they are innovative.

Me opening an LLC and trying to make a phone with faceid under the screen does not make my LLC innovative.

 

[BeeGood]

I think Apple may have pulled the plug on AirPower but not the entire idea. It’s un-Apple like in the way it was handled but maybe apple had a reason to do it this way. (Although I cant fathom why)

I agree, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn in the future that Apple actually never stopped working on it and see it on the shelves one day.

About the way this was handled, the only thing that makes sense in my head is that they’ve basically been (or felt they’ve been) “really close”, which is why they never officially cancelled it before now. I believe they probably even delayed AirPods 2 in anticipation of releasing them together. Once AirPods 2 came out, I think they just realized that keeping AirPower in “coming soon” status was a liability.

Whatever their reasoning, I think it was a mistake from a PR standpoint, but it’s still very possible that they believe that AirPower is a viable idea.

 

[manu chao]

Quick question.. how do you place Apple Watch with metal bands flat on Airpower?

You can't... hence Airpower's implementation was flawed from the start, Nomad's works on all and the fact that it's magnetic gives you a pleasant experience that it snaps into place.

Of course AirPower wouldn't have worked with bands that could not be split apart and bent flat. That was clear the moment they showed the first picture of AirPower in September 2017 (unless you would have been willing to remove the bands before charging).

That magnetic aspect is true for all Apple Watch chargers. It's necessary for a precise enough alignment of the charging coils on the Watch (which is significantly smaller than an iPhone). It's true of the Apple Watch charger that ships with every Apple Watch.

 

[cmaier]

Quick question.. how do you place Apple Watch with metal bands flat on Airpower?

You can't... hence Airpower's concept was flawed from the start, Nomad's works on all and the fact that it's magnetic gives you a pleasant experience that it snaps into place.

You can, at least with the NEW Milanese loops. They pull all the way open, unlike the old ones.

 

[TheWatchfulOne]

This is without contest, the biggest tech blunder ever in history. Apple’s reputation is done. Finished. People will remember this for ages. How can people trust Apple anymore after this? Think about how people purchased an iPhone just to use AirPower. From now on I will never ever trust Apple with anything. Nothing. It’s over. Unless it’s physically in a store, it’s all vaporware from now on. Sorry, Apple, doesn’t matter if you have a shipping date. Unless it’s in a store, it’s vaporware.

Seriously? There's no way this is more of a blunder than exploding Samsung phones. And I'd bet most people have never heard of AirPower.

 

[trifid]

You can, at least with the NEW Milanese loops. They pull all the way open, unlike the old ones.

Even in that case if you have to pull all the way open and then re-insert each time you wear, that might erase the convenience you were supposed to get, to the point something like Nomad’s wins again. Snap into magnet and boom. It’s probably easier in the dark when you go to bed as well.

 

[macgeek01]

You clearly don’t understand my post; there’s really there’s no point in quoting me if you’re not even going to try to refute the logical arguments I provided you.

Such a humorous hypocrital statement LOL

You do realize these are ultimately matters of opinions and it’s actually illogical for you to believe you know better than anyone else?

 

[DeanL]

And which is best? To launch an inferior product, or realize that there’s no chance to create that product with given specs?

The actual innovation. Like Google Glasses or Project Ara.
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Would prefer having it canceled rather than, let’s say, house on fire from faulty device

That's the not the point. It's about announcing a product that you know is nowhere close to shipping. I can't remember Google doing that with the Google Glasses or Project Ara.

 

[Peperino]

And which is best? To launch an inferior product, or realize that there’s no chance to create that product with given specs?

Apple launched many inferior products that were not ready for release like the Macbook Pro 2016.
And it is not any fancy product. It is a darn computer.

 

[cmaier]

Even in that case if you have to pull all the way open and then re-insert each time you wear, that might erase the convenience you were supposed to get, to the point something like Nomad’s wins again. Snap into magnet and boom. It’s probably easier in the dark when you go to bed as well.

Oh, I agree. The Nomad-style design would be much better than AirPower, other than AirPower allowing the other devices to sit anywhere on the pad.

 

[MrGimper]

So I guess that answers Phil’s “Can’t innovate my ass” point....