AirPower - Cancelled
Where art thou AirPower? Let’s face it, Apple got the branding wrong from the start. I’ve been saying to my friends and family going on 2 years that this wireless charger should have been called the Apple JuicePad. This is quite the rare occasion, as I can’t remember the last time that Apple officially announced a product on stage with photos and renderings, got the consumer market excited for this wireless charger that would solve a real world problem - traveling with multiple cables, had a team give it buzz for years, only for it to be cancelled. Apple in a way has a serious problem on its hands, and that is they’re getting in the habit of announcing items before they’re ready. Let’s face it, this is not something this company has been known for in the past.
Apple has built a company on the idea technology will change the world for the better. Although Apple in my opinion is still doing that, this will go down in the history books for sure that they cancelled a product after almost 2 years of talking about it.
A quote from VP of hardware engineering Dan Riccio today March 29th was-
“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.”
All I can say if there were serious hardware or overheating concerns with AirPower, Apple did the right thing by canceling the project. I hope they learned from this exercise that you need to be positive a product can be properly manufactured before you announce it on a world stage. Apple will recover from this, as in the grand scheme of things it’s simply a bump in the road. The good thing about this situation is that the 3rd party manufacturers will benefit from Apples shortcomings. I can even see Apple selling one of their approved vendors products, such as Belkin, at their retail and online stores in weeks and months to come.
So long AirPower. You were a fun idea, and that’s sadly where you will stay...an idea. 💡
Be well,
-Joe
