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Apple's Upcoming AirPower Wireless Charging Mat Could Cost Around $199 in the United States

I really don't get why anyone would want this, even if you have all three devices that can be charged. I own all three, except the AirPods wireless charging case.

My problem with it is that my AirPods get charged like once a week. So I plug them in at my desk when they are down to their last charge and they charge before I have to use them next. My Watch already has a stand, and using AirPower you can't use nightstand mode. You also have to take of the Milanese loop, sport loop, and link bracelet to even put the watch on there. So you are left with an iPhone charger that can sometimes charge some other devices at the same time, but always takes up that extended amount of space.

I'll stick to my $25 anker wireless charger.
 
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Judging Sam by her battery life usage, she doesn't seem to use the phone for entertainment purposes; only checking an occasional email or sending text messages and answering phone calls. She does, however, use her watch as the primary form of entertainment, perhaps enjoying Music throughout the morning for exercise and working out. Because of the superior battery life from the AirPods charging case, the charging case rarely sees the charging mat, maybe once every three days. Sam loves her Watch.
 
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Darryl.Jenks said:
So it still needs to be within a foot or three of a power outlet, yes?

I'm sorry. I just don't get it.
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it takes roughly 3 seconds to find the lightning cord end, and plug in...another .5 seconds to unplug (dropping the cable) so...if you charge your phone two times a day...you just gained yourself 7 SECONDS! think about what you could do in that amount of time and relish in it.
 
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$199? Sure, why not. I just spent $1260 on a phone, $99 for a case, $349 set aside for the homepod, etc. The Christmas bonus is slowly dwindling.
 
This is how Apple gets you - Grant and Benjamin-ing you. You see this is only $200 and think, "Hey, that's not too much!" but next thing you know you have to buy a new phone that supports inductive charging ($700+), AirPods ($160) plus the inductive case ($70), and an Apple Watch ($330+) to even make the most use of this AirPower device. Next thing you know you are out almost $2000 to make use of this pretty coaster.
 
jclardy said:
I really don't get why anyone would want this, even if you have all three devices that can be charged. I own all three, except the AirPods wireless charging case.

My problem with it is that my AirPods get charged like once a week. So I plug them in at my desk when they are down to their last charge and they charge before I have to use them next. My Watch already has a stand, and using AirPower you can't use nightstand mode. You also have to take of the Milanese loop, sport loop, and link bracelet to even put the watch on there. So you are left with an iPhone charger that can sometimes charge some other devices at the same time, but always takes up that extended amount of space.

I'll stick to my $25 anker wireless charger.
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Very valid points about the watch and specific straps. That's why I bought a used Apple Watch charging "donut" from eBay.
 
friednoodles said:
This is the dumbest article yet. As if Apple would provide any outside company, let alone some random retailer, with pricing information this far ahead. I bet Apple hasn't even decided what they're going to charge for it yet.

Clearly a placeholder. This is worse than the stupid claims about Face ID component manufacturing.
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You may be right - a placeholder. But come on. You just KNOW that's how much it's going to cost though.
 
Apple should go 1 step further and create a “Lootboxes” kinda system where some chargers charge at 1x some charge at 1.5x or 2x the speed. You will only know it when you open the box and charge your iPhone using it.
 
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Did anyone expect this NOT to cost at the very least $150? The only thing that makes it interesting is that, from what I understand, you can place stuff anywhere on the mat and it'll charge rather than having to nail the location on a typical wireless puck (which hasn't been a big problem from what I've seen with my wife's 8). But, plenty of the "nice" versions of these things cost around $50, so if you can put multiple devices on it, it doesn't seem to be that out of line knowing their pricing would be at the top end of the spectrum no matter what.
 
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Ugh. I'm less angry about the price and more angry that these things are called "wireless chargers."

You still plug them in the wall with a wire and your device has to lay on it. It's not like you can walk around the house and be connected without any wires like Wi-Fi.
 
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Highly doubt it'll be placed so high. Apple loves their markup, but that is way outside of the range to make this thing even remotely "Add-on"-able to anyone other than the diehards.

If engineering costs really do push the price so high, hopefully we'll see quick iterative cycling to push down pricing.
 
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