Apple cancels AirPower wireless charging mat, citing quality issues

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Comments

  • Reply 141 of 228
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    lkrupp said:
    133 comments about a cancelled charger. And people wonder why the country is going to hell in a hand basket.
    Yeh. That’s the reason. 

    By by the way you’ve contributed three times to the thread you think contributing to is causing the country to go to hell in a hand basket. 

    Most of your arguments are generalised ad hominems, rarely dealing with the issues raised. 
    elijahgpatchythepirateElCapitanmacguifastasleepchemengin
  • Reply 142 of 228
    seankillseankill Posts: 566member

    Thank Gawd!   Airpower was overrated.   Wireless charging is easy and cheap yet Apple Fanboys had this irrational fixation on Airpower like it was somehow magical.   Let's move on from an idea that wasn't that stellar in the first place. 

    No... careful how you frame this. AirPower was different from most of the Qi chargers in the marketplace because it featured 3 charging spots on the same mat. That's technically challenging, as proven by this cancellation. Any other company would have released it, even with it not working exactly as designed. Apple won't do that. Apple "fanboys" benefit from a company that cares about its customers. It was never a fixation. Are you lacking something in your life, you need to put people down to feel better about yourself? You may want to see a doc about that.
    Any other company would have just released it? Which is why so many of these AirPower devices are on the market? Get real. 

    Apple flat out failed, vapor ware at its finest. Hopefully they’ll do better next time. 
    chemengin
  • Reply 143 of 228
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Announcing a product prematurely that Apple ultimately decided not to release because it was not up to their quality standards is an obvious blunder on Apple's part, but let's be real here. In the big scheme of all things Apple, this is an insignificant blunder and I am glad that Apple pulled the plug. They obviously have their reasons for doing so, and I'm sure that they have good reasons.

    However, with the way that certain hyperbolic, midget brained ants are reacting on the internet, you'd think that Apple just announced that they were cancelling the 2019 iPhone. An Apple wireless charging pad would have been a nice product to have for some people, sure, but at the end of the day it's just an accessory and there are plenty of other regular wireless qi chargers on the market. It's a minor let down, but it's certainly not the end of the world, which is the impression that I get from certain clowns.

    From what I gather, there is nothing else out there that does what the Air Power was supposed to do. Not even close. Was it too ambitious an undertaking by Apple? Perhaps. Was it something to do with cost? With safety? Either way, Apple is not going to pull the plug on a product if there wasn't good reason to do so, so I am glad that they did.

    Did Apple make a mistake here? Sure, announcing it was perhaps a mistake. And not being able to deliver it up their standards was perhaps a mistake. But cancelling it was not a mistake. The cancellation is probably the smartest move that they made in regards to the Air Power.

    Maybe Samsung will release their own version 6 months from now. It might burn a few houses down, but who cares about that. Go buy that one, if you believe that making such a charger is an easy feat, since IKEA makes chargers after all, like a previous commentator pointed out.

    I wasn't even planning on getting an Air Power, so this has zero effect on me personally, but I will definitely be getting the Apple Card soon. To me, as an Apple fan, that announcement brought me far more joy than any AirPower announcement ever did.



    HenryDJPfastasleeppscooter63
  • Reply 144 of 228
    elijahgelijahg Posts: 2,753member
    apple ][ said:


    Wow, welcome back Apple ][!
    edited March 2019
  • Reply 145 of 228
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    elijahg said:
    apple ][ said:


    Wow, welcome back Apple ][!
    Thanks! But I'm not back, or at least I don't think that I am. I guess that I just couldn't resist. :)
    elijahguniscapepscooter63
  • Reply 146 of 228
    Guess I am returning my airpods for the ones without charging case.
  • Reply 147 of 228
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    apple ][ said:
    elijahg said:
    apple ][ said:


    Wow, welcome back Apple ][!
    Thanks! But I'm not back, or at least I don't think that I am. I guess that I just couldn't resist. :)
    I was going to say the same thing. Long time no hear.
  • Reply 148 of 228
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    gatorguy said:
    I was going to say the same thing. Long time no hear.

    I've been here from time to time, just to read and follow up on certain news. It's just that I was doing so while wearing my self imposed virtual muzzle, which I have temporarily removed for the time being.
    jmc54pscooter63
  • Reply 149 of 228
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    apple ][ said:
    gatorguy said:
    I was going to say the same thing. Long time no hear.

    I've been here from time to time, just to read and follow up on certain news. It's just that I was doing so while wearing my self imposed virtual muzzle, which I have temporarily removed for the time being.
       B)
    Don't be such a stranger

  • Reply 150 of 228
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    cecil4444 said:
    So it was always ever vaporware. Nice going, Apple.
    That’s patently false.  It was prototyped and likely even went into multiple rounds of test production and testing.  They just couldn’t get it to work.  Rarely do they release hardware that isn’t great.  They weren’t going to start now.  
  • Reply 151 of 228
    22july201322july2013 Posts: 3,564member
    Perhaps Steve Jobs' phrase "Bag O Hurt", in which he was referring to Blu-Ray, also applies to AirPower. Safety, Health, Regulatory, not a Green product, quality issues, patents which Apple doesn't own etc.
    edited March 2019
  • Reply 152 of 228
    AI_liasAI_lias Posts: 434member
    Guess I am returning my airpods for the ones without charging case.
    Maybe you'll be able to charge them from the new iPhone they're releasing in the fall, with wireless power sharing. 
    fastasleep
  • Reply 153 of 228
    AI_liasAI_lias Posts: 434member
    I don't get what the big deal is. How attached can one be to unreleased products? If anything it's good and shows that Apple doesn't want to release a sub-par product. Now, if they had done the same with the butterfly keyboards....
    clarker99
  • Reply 154 of 228
    512ke512ke Posts: 782member
    Okay the product isn't up to Apple's standards yet. But why cancel it? Why quit? Why say, no, we just can't do it, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. What the hell, Apple? You are making TV series. You are issuing a credit card. But you can't handle a charging pad? This is an ominous sign in my personal opinion.
    caladanianchemenginpscooter63
  • Reply 155 of 228
    tribalogicaltribalogical Posts: 1,182member
    "...we've concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards..."
    What this says to me is, they couldn't "stabilize" the performance, etc. (aka 'achieve our high standards') using a bill of materials (BOM, or cost of included components) that came in at a price point they found reasonable. They could probably do just fine if it were at a higher price point. I think they were trying to come in around $150 retail. A higher price, but as a multi-device charger, very competitive with similar lower-priced single-device chargers.
    It's likely they simply couldn't achieve their high-quality goals at a price that made any sense. I work with a Toy R&D company that has products live and die entirely on the reality of the BOM. A perfect example was an interactive "smart drone" we worked on that was a highly interactive "gaming drone" with AR/VR features, etc.. Cool idea, but the BOM made it impossible to produce. There was no way to achieve the target $200 retail price point when, to make the toy really work, it cost $150 in parts just to manufacture...
    I'm guessing the AirPower mat was a similar situation...
    edited March 2019 chemengin
  • Reply 156 of 228
    macplusplusmacplusplus Posts: 2,112member
    Ugh. Disappointing. 

    Now I need to return my wireless-charing AirPods for the normal...if a mat can't do all three devices it isn't worth it to me.

    You're joking, right? Tell us you're joking.  :D

    If not, ... ya, return your AirPods.  >:)
    He has a point. Purchasing a mat to charge only one device at a time doesn’t make sense, a simple cable does the job.
  • Reply 157 of 228
    karmadavekarmadave Posts: 369member
    Well...at least Apple had the good sense to kill a product they know wasn’t safe to bring to market. I’m guessing that given that AirPower was an electrical charging device, it either couldn’t pass certification and/or the attorneys thought Apple’s liability was too great. Sometimes you gotta know when to cut your losses. Maybe an opportunity for 3rd Parties?
  • Reply 158 of 228
    jpellinojpellino Posts: 697member
    jpellino said:
    Dear lord.  IKEA makes wireless chargers.  This is beyond Apple?
    Ikea does not make a multi-device, multi-coil charger akin to AirPower's design, no.
    Really?  I saw one in the store the other day.  This is the listing:

    NORDMÄRKE
    Triple pad for wireless charging, white
    $59.99
    Article Number: 
    103.083.15
  • Reply 159 of 228
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    jpellino said:
    jpellino said:
    Dear lord.  IKEA makes wireless chargers.  This is beyond Apple?
    Ikea does not make a multi-device, multi-coil charger akin to AirPower's design, no.
    Really?  I saw one in the store the other day.  This is the listing:

    NORDMÄRKE
    Triple pad for wireless charging, white
    $59.99
    Article Number: 
    103.083.15
    That's not similar to Apple's design at all. Apple's is much more complex, since you would be able to place the devices anywhere on the pad and have them detected and be able to charge. I suppose that it turned out to be too complex. Not that I know much about wireless charging, but I believe that Apple's design involved many more coils and more complexity.

    Of course Apple would have been able to make a simple charger like any of those ones that are already on the market, but Apple was attempting to do something different. They tried to think different, but I guess it just didn't work out this time around.
    edited March 2019 elijahgpscooter63
  • Reply 160 of 228
    kimberlykimberly Posts: 427member
    I guess others can, or have, read the article on this site: https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/09/13/what-happened-with-apples-wireless-airpower-charging-pad-and-why

    If Apple stated that the challenge of putting 'multiple co-operative flux generators' into a practical consumer item for a reasonable cost had too many hurdles, I would just think 'fair enough then'. I respect companies with an R&D function that look at instantiating theories into commercial products.  I understand that success, even after much R&D effort, is not always the outcome. With the saturation of multi-coil products out there (14 in the AI article 'best alternative Qi wireless iPhone charging pads') Apple probably views adding their own multi-coil device (no differentiator) as not what they do.
    pscooter63
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