14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has officially discontinued the AirPower charging mat, an ambitious product that was supposed to allow the charging of several Apple devices at the same time.
In a statement for TechCrunch, Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, explains that the reason for giving up on the wireless charger is a failure to “achieve our high standards.”
No other specifics were provided, so at this point, it’s not known if Apple is still thinking of launching a similar product or not.
“After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project. We apologize 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,” he said.
Originally projected to launch in 2018
Apple announced AirPower in September, and the product was originally supposed to launch in 2018. Many believed an early 2018 launch was very likely, especially as the Cupertino tech giant typically launches accessories and device upgrades in the first months of the year.
However, people with knowledge of the matter said on several occasions that Apple was considering a complete demise of AirPower, especially as the company experienced technical difficulties during the development process.
Most recently, it was speculated that the charging mat suffered from overheating issues, as the device came with a large number of power coils in order to be able to recharge multiple devices at the same time. AirPower was supposed to support iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods.
Meanwhile, all these devices can still be charged wirelessly separately using either their own chargers, or as it’s the case of the iPhone, with the help of a Qi wireless charger.
A new-generation iPhone will be announced in September, so it remains to be seen if Apple is still looking into this kind of accessories for its devices.