Apple Reportedly Started Production of Long-Delayed AirPower

It’s September 2017. Apple launches the big new iPhone X and shows off its AirPower charging mat capable of wirelessly charging multiple devices at once. And after months of wait, the AirPower just disappeared into the air.

Apple never really announced an official release date for the AirPower, though the company was originally hoping to launch the device sometime by June 2018. That did not happen due to technical hurdles in the development process. And at Apple’s most recent hardware events where the company announced new iPhones, Apple Watch, and iPad, the firm simply did not even mention AirPower. It also even removed any mention of the product from its website.

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And that, of course, led everyone to question the product’s future.

But as it turns out, Apple could soon be launching the AirPower. A Twitter account by the name of ChargerLab claimed that Apple’s production partner Luxshare Precision has started producing the new AirPower. Luxshare Precision already makes the company’s popular AirPods — and Apple’s another popular OEM, Pegatron, will reportedly start production of the AirPower from January 21. Pegatron has a long relationship with Apple, producing some of the company’s most popular products.

If the reports are to be believed, the official release of the AirPower should not be too far away. Apple already knows the company’s fans are disappointed by the delays of the product, so it will likely launch the product pretty soon. It’s not exactly clear how much the product will cost.

We do know that Apple is expected to launch a new wireless charging case for the AirPods so users can charge their AirPods on the AirPower, so the company might launch the AirPower along with the new AirPods 2.

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Conversation 16 comments

  • nefch

    Premium Member
    12 January, 2019 - 12:59 pm

    <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The very first sentence of this article is wrong: "It’s September </span><strong style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">2018</strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">." Mehedi, please check the facts first! It was September </span><strong style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">2017</strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">.</span></p>

    • digiguy

      Premium Member
      12 January, 2019 - 1:34 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#396404">In reply to nefch:</a></em></blockquote><p>exacty, this is more than a year old</p>

    • Mehedi Hassan

      Premium Member
      12 January, 2019 - 1:53 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#396404">In reply to nefch:</a></em></blockquote><p>Sorry, it's fixed now.</p>

    • StevenLayton

      13 January, 2019 - 9:01 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#396404">In reply to nefch:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yikes! Let's grab the pitchforks, he made a typo. </p>

  • glenn8878

    12 January, 2019 - 6:40 pm

    <p>They need new products to sell. iPhone sales tanked. </p>

    • dontbe evil

      13 January, 2019 - 12:41 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#396500">In reply to glenn8878:</a></em></blockquote><p>apple fans doesn't aprreciate your truth comment</p>

  • dontbe evil

    13 January, 2019 - 12:41 am

    <p>How the title changes if MS release an update called October in november for a bug, or if apple delay the production of a product offically promised for 2018 for almost a year</p>

    • chiwax

      13 January, 2019 - 9:40 am

      <blockquote><a href="#396541"><em>In reply to dontbe_evil:</em></a><em> </em>We're never going to see an end to the "update disaster" angle from this site. Nor will we see a decrease in Google product promotion here either. It is what it is. </blockquote><p><br></p>

    • MikeGalos

      13 January, 2019 - 10:10 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#396541">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p>It could be worse. Remember all the stories about how Microsoft was late in shipping "Courier" which was never even a product but just a prototype idea out of Microsoft Research?</p><p><br></p><p>At least with Windows 10 updates, they actually exist. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • MikeGalos

    13 January, 2019 - 10:17 am

    <p>Note that the "originally hoping to launch by June 2018" wasn't an actual Apple date. It was press speculation of the latest date it wouldn't be horribly embarrassing so Apple could get praise for beating that date. </p><p><br></p><p>Remember that this was a product announced as a featured add-on for the iPhone X and that year's Apple Watch. People bought those products, at least in part, because of the wireless charging capability offered by the AirPower charger. Those products went an entire lifecycle, were replaced by successors and those people who purchased them are now counting on Apple's backward compatibility for their now-legacy products.</p><p><br></p><p>And remember that the AirPower was already late when Apple "leaked" that trial balloon about how hard the engineering problem was. That strongly implies they announced a spec sheet and mock-up with no actual idea how it would really work – the definition of Vaporware. It seems likely that trial balloon was Apple testing the waters on releasing separate wireless chargers for each product when they couldn't figure out how to actually make what they announced.</p><p><br></p><p>But, I'm sure it'll ship, in some form, before the Mac Pro – yet another "Oh, we never said next year when we announced it. I can't imagine how you got that idea." vaporware product announced in 2017 by the people in the giant donut in Cupertino.</p>

    • MikeGalos

      13 January, 2019 - 10:20 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#396571">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>Oh, and credit to my ex-boss Mark Ursino for coining the word Vaporware about VisiCorp's Visi On demonstration at Comdex Fall 1982. I doubt he realized at the time his neologism would still be around as industry practice 35 years later and outlast VisiCorp by decades.</p>

      • pecosbob04

        13 January, 2019 - 11:11 am

        <blockquote><a href="#396572"><em>In reply to MikeGalos:</em></a><em> Msft certainly knows vaporware alright. Though I suppose their time honored marketing tactic of combating a competitors innovative new product announcement / release by announcing that they will be bringing an "improved" version to market in the immediate future, even when they haven't figured out what the competitors product actually does is really an example of FUD. But either way they mastered the art.</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

    • nbplopes

      14 January, 2019 - 9:08 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#396571">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>There you have it. After all these years your experience with Milo has been vindicated.</p>

      • MikeGalos

        15 January, 2019 - 8:05 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#396707">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes. Lionhead studios could be a division of Apple based on their ship schedule. </p>

  • SvenJ

    13 January, 2019 - 8:47 pm

    <p>Beside the price, I wonder if the power port on that thing graduated to USB-C, or it's still using a lightning plug. I would think USB-C would be more suited for a device that should be able to quick charge two phones plus a watch or AirPods. How long ago it was conceived makes me wonder if it might not be lightning though. Does it matter? Maybe if one is working towards standardizing on USB-C, buying an expensive (assumed) device with a proprietary legacy charge port might take some thought.</p>

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