Why Apple May Never Launch AirPower Wireless Charger for iPhone

Apple is unlikely to launch its AirPower wireless charging mat this year as there may be technical issues with it.

The Apple AirPower charging mat has ran into some trouble.

(Photo: Apple)

Remember Apple’s wireless charger, which was supposed to let you charge iPhone, Airpods and the Apple Watch together? The product has completely disappeared from Apple’s scheme of things and even its website.

Now a report by an avid Apple follower and tipster, Sonny Dickson, suggests that the Cupertino-based giant is unlikely to launch the AirPower charger anytime soon and he’s got multiple reasons to support his claim. The chances of Dickson being right are quite high, as even at the recent iPhone launch event, Tim Cook and Co. shied away from talking about this product.

So, what has delayed the launch of Apple’s unique wireless charging pad? Dickson says that Apple has run into technical issues with the product, forcing the company to head back to the drawing board to fix the glitches.

Turns out, Apple has multiple issues with the AirPower that has forced the company to refrain from talking about the product.

Currently the device produces far too much heat, which causes performance setbacks, and can affect the ability of the devices to charge if they become too warm in the process.

<a href="http://sonnydickson.com/2018/09/16/what-really-happened-to-apples-airpower/">Sonny Dickson</a>

Heating issues can cause damage to any device placed on the mat for charging and most of this has got to do with the design of the coil, placed underneath the mat.

Apple’s engineers have been experiencing both hardware and software issues with the communication between AirPower and devices placed on the mat, especially the communication of Apple Watch and AirPod charging data to the iPhone.

<a href="http://sonnydickson.com/2018/09/16/what-really-happened-to-apples-airpower/">Sonny Dickson</a>

The fact that Apple is letting users charge multiple devices on the mat at the same time has resulted in laggy inter-device communication. This is likely to hinder the support link between the Watch and iPhone, especially when you’re looking to pair them together.

All this clearly suggests that the AirPower “will either be canceled, dramatically delayed, or taken back to the drawing board with an all new design that would have a different appearance”.

AirPower was supposed to be Apple’s first Qi- supported charging device, something which was adopted after it joined hands with the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) a few years back.

This ensured that the iPhone 8 series was the first of its phones to support wireless charging. The AirPower was expected to help Apple establish wireless charging as an industry standard but looks like we’ll have to wait for that.