Apple's AirPower Wireless Charging Mat Could Be Available to Buy Next Month

[jarman92]

The idea that Apple would tell a random Polish retailer the price of AirPower months in advance is laughable; the fact that MacRumors is running with it is outrageous.
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That is modern Apple. Announce, wait, ship. With the wireless charging Apple is "late to the game" so there was no competitive advantage in announcing so far in advance of shipping. It was likely the smart thing to do, some people may wait to buy the Apple Airpower mat, instead of the competitor's product.
I do wonder why Apple couldn't ship at the same time as the iPhone 8 or X? The products that take advantage of it.

No other company makes a product comparable to AirPower, so Apple isn’t “late to the game.” And I imagine it didn’t ship with the iPhone 8/X because it isn’t ready yet.

 

[Vjosullivan]

Genuinely don’t think this is going to cost more than $100...

$100 seems reasonable, therefore I would expect $200. Apple products are always priced way above what seems reasonable.

 

[Mansu944]

Doesn’t seem like this will work with the Sport Loop very well. Or the Milanese loop & stainless band for that matter

 

[Vjosullivan]

No other company makes a product comparable to AirPower

Not even Apple. But seriously, are you saying no other company makes a wireless charging mat?

 

[strategicthinke]

Everyone here seems to be missing the point.
To charge an iPhone, the Watch and the AirPods, it is most likely that a 29w charger with the respective USB-C to Lightning cable will be bundled with the AirPower. The new wireless charging protocol for the iPhone X uses 7.5W for fast charging; the AirPods use 5W and the Apple Watch uses 5W as well. Summing it all up, we would need 12.5W (not sure if from an engineering standpoint it stands true, but I guess it is not too far a stretch to consider it would need the power of three chargers to competently charge the three devices). Apple only has 5W (iPhone, Apple Watch etc.), 10W (iPad in emerging markets, yes, they ship worse chargers here...), 12W (iPads in developed nations), and 29W (fast charging for the iPad and iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X) - there are higher powered chargers but they are not suitable / made for iOS devices, so I’ll ignore them. The only charger that seems to be able to charge the three devices at the same time is the 29W, especially with the power innefficiencies of wireless charging. So... consider that the 29W charger is USD 50, the USB-C to Lightning cable, USD 30. That’s already USD 80. So, actually, they are only charging an additional USD 120, and that’s not even considering the price of an extra Apple Watch cable.
Again, I am not defending - nor criticizing - Apple’s pricing of their products. But to claim that they are charging USD 200 for the AirPower misses the point in case they actually ship it with the 29W as I pointed out (also, you get an extra fast charging solution for your iPad in the bundle).
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Not even Apple. But seriously, are you saying no other company makes a wireless charging mat?

Comparable, if they actually make it even throughout all the mattress as a charging point, with no optimal spots, then it is exclusive to Apple.
It’s like the W1 chip and Bluetooth, other companies have Bluetooth, but it doesn’t stop W1 from being a league of its own.
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Doesn’t seem like this will work with the Sport Loop very well. Or the Milanese loop & stainless band for that matter

I’m pretty sure they made it quite tiny (from the front to the back) to make it possible to wrap these watch bands around the AirPower on the sides. It was considered in the industrial design.

 

[Abazigal]

Not even Apple. But seriously, are you saying no other company makes a wireless charging mat?

No third party charging mat is going to charge the series 3 Apple Watch, so if it's an integrated wireless charging dock you want for your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods, the airpower dock is really the only option there is.

 

[reybart]

I have been waiting for this. Only the reason why I never bought for my iPhone x. yet..Fan boy

 

[windywalks]

It doesn't work with my Watch series 1, so the only compelling reason to buy it would be the ability to charge two iPhones at the same time. They talked about multiple devices, but you always see a phone, a watch and airpods in the pictures, so I'm not sure it will work with two phones at once.
And let's see how much they charge for it, if I can buy 3 or 4 good third party accessories at the same price why should I buy one of those?

Seeing as the iPhone X and 8 charge at a maximum of 7.5 W right now, the charging mat would have to come with the 29W power brick to even touch on a reasonable charging speed.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I still think the reported $199 price is either a hoax (never seen that before on the Internet) or the result of something lost in translation. Sure, Apple products are routinely priced above competition but a $199 price point doesn't leave consumers with much room to justify buying it. It's a tad more convenient and maybe faster but that's not worth a 4x price of your average fast Qi charger or 10x of a regular speed one.

Given the slow down in iPhones sales Apple would be smart to use the AirPower as an inducement to buy high end iDevices with inductive charging and price this at $79 or $99. No matter what this is priced at it's not going to be material to Apple's bottom line so why antagonize customers with an unreasonable price instead of using it as a carrot? The price Apple adopts will very much tell us how Cupertino really feels about customers, TC's recent FC interview notwithstanding. At $199 it's a mindless fanboy and endless money customer product only.

 

[strategicthinke]

Repeat with me: it will come with a 29W and USB-C cable.
That’s already 80 dollars.
Repeat it 10x.

 

[democracyrules]

Apple will begin selling its AirPower wireless charging mat next month, according to Japanese website Mac Otakara. The publication has spoken to "reliable sources" who have apparently confirmed a claim made earlier in February by The Apple Post that the wireless accessory will go on sale in Apple retail stores sometime in March, although the specific date still remains unclear.

Announced by Apple in September, AirPower is an oval-shaped white charging mat featuring Qi-compatible networking technology that will allow it to charge multiple devices at once. Along with an iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, or iPhone X, and the Apple Watch Series 3, the AirPower charges AirPods thanks to a new wireless charging AirPods case that's also set to be released sometime soon.

According to the original rumor, Apple intends to make the AirPower mat available to purchase concurrently at Best Buy and other Authorized Apple Resellers alongside its own retail stores. The Apple Post also claimed that in addition, Apple retail stores will stock the updated AirPods wireless charging case on the same day, although Mac Otakara's own sources make no mention of this.

Mac Otakara has connections to the Asian supply chain and Asian accessory manufacturers, making it a typically trusted source for Apple product rumors. That said, the publication does not have a perfect record and has shared inaccurate info on occasion, so it's best not to take the latest report as fact until backed up by other sources.

Right now our best guess is that Apple's AirPower wireless charging mat will cost around $199 in the United States, based on a price listing for the accessory that appeared on a Polish website in November.

Article Link: Apple's AirPower Wireless Charging Mat Could Be Available to Buy Next Month

So excited to hear this will available soon. I will get two of these.

 

[pete2106]

I'll just wait a month for someone to release a mat that looks identical and does the exact same thing for $20 on Amazon.

 

[DoctorTech]

Something else, Apple should have had the AirPower ready for release along with the AirPod wireless charging battery case before the holidays. That would have been a huge accessory as a selling point for those who are considering to upgrade for those products and could take advantage of the Airpower.

It just seems scattered with the Series 3 Apple Watch and iPhone X/8 already being released, then having the AirPod wireless charging battery case and AirPower being an entirely separate release.

I've worked in new product development before and there are a lot of "unknowns" when introducing new technology to your product lines (even if the technology itself is relatively mature and already in use by competitors). I am sure Apple would have liked to have had the charging mat & wireless AirPod cases available before the Holidays but for whatever reason (starting development too late, integration problems, etc.) they didn't make it. Simultaneous releases are even more difficult. If you plan to launch 2 new products at once (say iPhone 8 and the new charging mat) and one of them falls behind schedule, should you delay the launch of the first item or go ahead and release it? In the case of iPhones and Apple Watch, I am sure nobody wanted to let the new products age in the warehouse while working the bugs out of the new charging mat.

From a customer standpoint, I remember several years (somewhere around 2012 - 2013) Apple released a whole bunch of new products very close together and I spent a ton of money updating all my devices... then there was a long dry spell where Apple didn't release any new hardware. Ever since then I have been OK with them staggering their product releases.

 

[69Mustang]

Repeat with me: it will come with a 29W and USB-C cable.
That’s already 80 dollars.
Repeat it 10x.

Not many will repeat it with you (not even once) because most of us understand that using the retail price for the charger and the cable as a justification for a $200 price makes no sense at all. It makes even less sense since (I did that on purpose) the $200 price tag was (U.D.) literally pulled out of thin air by a Polish website. That price has no connection to Apple. We love to create these justification scenarios in our heads. Honestly, most of them should stay there.

 

[recoil80]

Repeat with me: it will come with a 29W and USB-C cable.
That’s already 80 dollars.
Repeat it 10x.

That's $80 when they sell the cable and the brick separately, accessories usually cost more when you buy them that way.
It doesn't mean the AirPower is worth $80 more just because it comes with the USB-C cable and the 29W brick.
I think AirPower will be expensive, but not $199, it'd be just too much and they'd sell too few units. $100/$120 seems like a reasonable price, the Ikea charger supporting 3 smartphones I linked in a previous post is $59, so about half of that price. I know Apple likes high prices, but I don't think they'll sell it for more than $150, and it would already be too high

 

[NightFox]

I know Apple made white THE colour for gadgets, but that was a long, long time ago and white is so ubiquitous these days that I just think it looks cheap now.

 

[Gorms]

Series 2 - water resistant
Series 3 - LTE
Series 4 - Health

Apple needs to sell the watch on a big announcement. I think Health is the next big thing.
Heart rate, temperature, blood sugar all in one package.
This would be a very nice advancement to the watch

Agreed on this. They took care of the key pain points with the series 0 in GPS and LTE in the 2 and the 3. Beyond a redesign (which I'm personally not crying out for with the Watch), the big seller this time has to be an advancement in Health. It's not really seen a great leap since the 0. It's one of the key uses for the device and we know they've been doing a lot of research and development on in the intervening 3 years that hasn't yet surfaced publicly.

 

[emulajavi]

How can people in this forum say that $100 for a charger is reasonable??


Anything more than $49 to 59$ (charger and cable included) is ridiculous!!

 

[2268473]

They can keep AirPower, since it will most likely be a lot more expensive than all the other chargers out there.

But for crying out loud, give us the wireless charging case for the AirPods!
I‘m still holding out on buying them because of this. The „Hey Siri“-update isn’t as important to me, but having switched to wireless charging with my iPhone, I just don’t see the point in getting wired-charging wireless headphones.

I believe the Apple Watch and AirPods will only charge on AirPower - they won’t work on standard Qi chargers (like the iPhone).

 

[riverfreak]

I think, this is only a convinient fix for the real problem, namely poor battery performance such as slow charging. Give me a battery that charges in less than a minute (perhaps minutes for a MBP) and still keeps the device running for a day-if that takes a cable due to high energy transfer rates, it is price I am willing to pay.

Cool, but, you know, physics.

 

[jclardy]

$99 is the max I would go for this. What I don't understand is why they came up with nightstand mode for Apple Watch, then they build a power mat where your watch lays flat. Also if you have any loop or link band you have to take them off to even use the thing. And if you have AirPods you have to buy a new case. Overall, just kind of seems like something they threw together just to have it as an upsell for "high-end" buyers.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Repeat with me: it will come with a 29W and USB-C cable.
That’s already 80 dollars.
Repeat it 10x.

A 29w is $50. USB-C charge cable is $20. That's $70, not $80. Also that's full retail. Typically when accessories are bundled with product their is a discounted value making the individual parts worth more than the combined sum. But I've seen nothing to indicate Apple will include these. Apple's m.o. for over a decade has been to not include or minimize accessories. Even the USB-C only MBPs don't come with a USB to USB-C adapter. Spend $1500+ on a laptop and still have to buy a $10 dongle. And Apple's USB-C charger doesn't come with a a cable either. It's just a naked charger, worthless unless you buy a cable, or happen to own one.

For argument's sake though, let's say Apple did include those items. AirPower still isn't worth $199 unless you drain your phone every 4 hours. There still is little room for consumers to rationalize the purchase. If they need a fast charge they could just buy the fast charger for a lot less.

 

[riverfreak]

At that price for a wireless charger, I'll pass!!
Will stick to my Mophie for now! I could buy 4 Mophies and place them around the house for the price of 1 Apple charging mat!

Nobody knows what the price is.

 

[Braderunner]

Going to be waaay overpriced. Also, kind of ugly.

 

[rizzo41999]

I'm all for paying a premium for the computers, phones and tablets and whatnot but $200.00 for an accessory that competitors are selling for $30.00 is just obnoxious. I get it, bigger margin but c'mon.