In a rare and embarrassing move for and from Apple, the Cupertino-based giant has simply canceled a hugely anticipated product — the ‘AirPower’ charging mat. The charging station was announced along side iPhone X in 2017. Apple had then announced that the mat would go on sale in 2018. That clearly did not happen, and there is no future for the product now.
The move to cancel an announced product — and that too when the announcements are made at the scale at which Apple makes them — is rare and embarrassing.
In a statement issued to Bloomberg, Apple’s senior VP of hardware Dan Riccio says, “After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have canceled the project”. Riccio further adds, “We apologise to those customers who were looking forward to this launch. We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward.”
Clearly, Apple seems to have missed the wireless bus.
Announced in 2017 and scheduled for a sale starting 2018, ‘AirPower’ is was a charging station of sorts, which had theoretical abilities of charging all Apple mobile devices — the iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch — at once. Theoretical now, since the product “project” is not seeing light of the day.
While Apple has not specifically made it clear as to why the product was not launched, multiple reports last year had mentioned the company’s inability to work around issues of overheating. Software calibration across devices was also reportedly one of the issues.
The Cupertino/California giant, for once since its existence (except the sans-Steve Jobs era earlier in its history), has looked absolutely clueless when it comes to innovation on the hardware front. Clearly, services has become a major focus for the company, but hardware is what made Apple, “Apple”. It will be interesting to see what the company comes out with in its September event this year. 5G is clearly off the list, since it is yet to find a partner for the same (Samsung, ZTE and others have the tech, and are creating itches while lending it to Apple).
