KGI: Apple's Own Wireless Charging Accessory Will Not Debut at Today's Event

[4jasontv]

it's a "mileage may vary" feature. I don't usually use my phone once I put it down for the night. so I'm ok with the way I use it.

I know peoplewho have their wireless chargers at the office so when they're working it sits on the charger, and they just grab their phone and go when they need it. I myself only tend to charge at night

I agree, but how do you use if it needs to be charged? There is no way my phone will make it through a TV show once i'm in bed. You must also not have pets who can knock it off the charger. Mine goes so far to push the phone off the nightstand and the cable connection is strong enough to hold on to it. I find it dangling at least once or twice a month.

 

[Ed217]

Ive been a Qi user for some years now. Have a number of pads in both house and car. Rarely every use a cord for phone. For me, charging with an IP7 is about 1%/minute. No clue if the 8 works with Qi. Qi is low cost and works well for most.

 

[576316]

I don’t think the regular iPhones will get wireless charging. Apple will make sure customers are short changed by buying the ‘cheap’ iPhones. Those new (two year old) features are only worthy of people willing to pay top dollar.

 

[spacebro]

I can tell you from the perspective of someone who travels often I've seen people simply place their phones on tables in hotels, restaurants, and coffee places that have it built into the tables and it is really simple... You don't need to find the cord, you don't need to find a seat next to a wall, etc. Granted, there are only a handful of places that have these tables but it's because only, what, 10% (?) of people with smart phones have phones with the capability. Imagine if the iPhone releases this, within the matter of a couple of years I'd be willing to bet it increase to over 75% of smart phones on the streets would have this. I'm not saying Apple makes up 65% of the market but they make up a large portion but more importantly the adoption would advanced much greater and would push other manufacturers to do the same.

Wireless charging is the best smartphone feature since 2007 when the first iphone came out. I have one built into my desk at work and on a side table at home. My phone never gets low. I just need to put one in my car and then I'll never have to think about charging again. Apple thinks they are so forward thinking but they are a year behind samsung on the best smartphone feature in a decade.

 

[CarlJ]

...so in the interim between the smartphones' launch and the launch of a first-party Apple wireless charging pad, users will have to purchase third-party accessories.

Yes, it's a terrible shame that Apple couldn't include some sort of accessory in the box that users could use to charge the phone somehow. I guess users will have to purchase a third-party charging device or just try very hard to limit their use of their new iPhone to try to make the initial charge last for a couple months - how astonishingly unreasonable of Apple.

Oh, wait, what's this little wire coiled up in the bottom of the box? And this funny little cube with prongs on one side? I wonder what these are for? Oh, well, guess I'll just throw these bits away and go buy a third-party wireless charger.

 

[Azzin]

Can anyone make an educated guess as to what wireless chargers might work?

Thinking of ordering one in advance, if Apple's won't be available for a while.

 

[MrX8503]

If this is true it will overshadow a lot of the news/discussion about the phone itself. How do you not have a design change for three years, with the resources of Apple, and not be able to ready your own charging station? It would be really nice if this affected some kind of leadership change at Apple as this is just a symptom of a larger problem, but I doubt if that will happen.

iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch

Apple has a huge product lineup and we don't know the inner workings of the company.

 

[Geert76]

Okay then if people are so much smarter then tech companies on how to make it work let's see it.

hi Tim! you slept well? ready for your Keynote today?

 

[LordVic]

I agree, but how do you use if it needs to be charged? There is no way my phone will make it through a TV show once i'm in bed. You must also not have pets who can knock it off the charger. Mine goes so far to push the phone off the nightstand and the cable connection is strong enough to hold on to it. I find it dangling at least once or twice a month.

My Cat surprisingly has never touched wires or my electronics. I know it's something that does happen (my ex's cats would chew through every wire they could!)

I don't use my phone to watch TV in bed. I just use it for chromecast control. So typically once I set what i'm watching, it goes on the charger. Sure, I may pull it off the dock from time to time to change programming, or check an alert that came in, but for the most part, there's always enough charge from being on the charger.

and if i'm in bed or lounging around the house, I will typically opt to use the iPad for the larger screen anways.

 

[78Bandit]

I don’t think the regular iPhones will get wireless charging. Apple will make sure customers are short changed by buying the ‘cheap’ iPhones. Those new (two year old) features are only worthy of people willing to pay top dollar.

Wireless will very likely be on the 8, 8S, and X. The revised LCD models both have glass backs which would facilitate wireless charging. Otherwise why go through the expense of a chassis redesign for the lower tier phones? Just keep them the same as they have been since the iPhone 6.

 

[nortonandreev]

I think that they should have postponed the iPhone X event to March next year. According the rumors so far, some features will not be available now due to software issues, there will supply shortages, some of the accessories (like the wireless charger) are not ready yet... This is not the experience Apple is known for.

 

[xgman]

Feels like this launch is quite disorganized.

It sure does. Doesn't give you much confidence. How hard could it be to do what everyone else has done for years now. . .

 

[GizmoDVD]

I think this sounds very odd indeed.

Lots of people would happily pay $79 or $99 for an original Apple wireless charger when picking up their new phone even though third party models can be had for $20 today.

There is tons of profit lost for Apple if wireless charging is enabled in the phone and they can't supply their own series of wireless chargers when the phone is released. It simply doesn't seem like something they would do; letting go of all that 'free' money.

We forget apple stopped making Docks for a few generations as well. "east money" was left on the table.

 

[lkrupp]

I know QI is meant to be a standard, but I'm sure I've seen reference to the iPhone potentially only working with Apple's QI charger (or Apple-certified third party QI chargers). Does anyone know if the QI standard would allow this (in terms of technically and contractually)?

I threw out several QI chargers a couple of years back thinking I'd never have a use for them...

Why not just wait a couple of hours and find out for yourself? Rumors are rumors are rumors. Most are spread by actors with agendas, namely confusing people and creating a FUD field.

 

[McCool71]

I have one built into my desk at work and on a side table at home. My phone never gets low.

More or less the same solution I have. Haven't run out of juice for more than two years now since the battery is close to 100% both in the morning and when leaving the office in the afternoon.

If I for some reason should have an extended Netflix session going on for hours I can always pop in a wired cable, but that has not been necessary for me. Situations where you are about to run out of power really doesn't happen much with wireless charging since you constantly top it up throughout the day.

 

[rGiskard]

I think that they should have postponed the iPhone X event to March next year. According the rumors so far, some features will not be available now due to software issues, there will supply shortages, some of the accessories (like the wireless charger) are not ready yet... This is not the experience Apple is known for.

Oh but they are! After the 7 launch portrait Mode wasn't available for months and despite the loss of the headphone jack AirPods weren't available at launch.

Steve Jobs died a long time ago. Apple sit on the lucre of his era yet with all that money they just can't seem to get the trains to run on time. They bled a lot of talent after Jobs died and word on the street is that they can't lure in those who Jobs would call the "A Players." Instead Apple are ground zero for silicon valley bozo eruptions.

 

[gugy]

I know, I am the minority but I would love to hear today some news on the Mac front. The upcoming iMac Pro, displays and hopefully more info on the Mac Pro and Mini.
Just some info Tim!

 

[goshya]

All new products have been leaked:

• iPhone 8
• iPhone 8+
• iPhone X Edition
• Apple Watch Series 3
• Apple TV (2017)
• iPod Touch 7th Generation

 

[juiz206]

i'm always careful with an Apple 1.0 product and usually wait awhile. For example first iPhone was the 3GS, iPad 3, Apple TV3 etc.
The watch ? not there yet as i dont need it, but hey never say never but if they announce a new Apple TV ? Not gonna touch it until iFixIt tear it down.

if you wait too much, you might be dead. Just saying.

every year there is a new product, every year there is a new technology introduced.

You can't say u don't need the Apple Watch until you have used it actually. Imagine never have used an iPhone saying u dont need it until you pick it up and try it out for months.

I think LTE is a game changer for me, I was waiting since 2015.

 

[jamezr]

Can anyone make an educated guess as to what wireless chargers might work?

Thinking of ordering one in advance, if Apple's won't be available for a while.

I would wait until we get more details. My gut tells me Apple will make wireless charging totally proprietary. So only the Apple Wireless dock(or whatever they name it) will work with the new iphones.

 

[bobmepp]

Inductive charging could be slightly convenient, but what's the big deal? How hard is it to charge a phone? Just asking. Also, won't inductive charging, leading to topping off the battery constantly, instead of nearly full discharges on a regular basis, cause premature battery failure? I probably wouldn't use it even if a charger was available, especially knowing that a charger will probably be a considerable extra cost option, I'm betting at least $99. Anyway, my 6S+ is perfect in every way, so it will be my phone for at least a year longer and I hope 2.

 

[amolediphone]

Yeah, because there ain't one!

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Wireless charging is the best smartphone feature since 2007 when the first iphone came out. I have one built into my desk at work and on a side table at home. My phone never gets low. I just need to put one in my car and then I'll never have to think about charging again. Apple thinks they are so forward thinking but they are a year behind samsung on the best smartphone feature in a decade.

You, like many here, are assuming the Apple implementation will be just the same as everything before it.

Remember that Apple has never been about the newest tech but rather imagining and implementing it in a way better than others before.

iPod wasn't the first MP3 player.
iPhone wasn't the first smartphone.
iPad wasn't the first tablet.
Google wasn't the first search engine.
Ford wasn't the first automobile.

It's not about being first. Rarely is the first iteration the best, in any business.

 

[UltimateSyn]

Wow. It’s not even going to debut? Not even a preview with a December availability? That’s insane.
How do you incorporate wireless charging in your products without a charger to go alongside them?

 

[neutralguy]

Yeah, he is a supply chain guy. That's probably why he missed the fact that the TECH was just not ready. Airpods were delayed because beats couldn't get their act together and apple had to fix their design problems and were delayed. I'm guessing apple just couldn't work out the details to the inductive charging dock before the deadline.

And you would think they must be planning ahead. It's not like they woke up on Jan 1st 2017 to decide hey let's make iPhone X and add inductive charging to it. Knowing the number of people Apple employs, it's so hard to believe such type of half ass product releases.