On September 12, 2017 Apple introduced the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X, the first generation
of iPhones to feature wireless charging.
So it was fitting that Apple also introduced an accessory called AirPower that same day,
which was Apple’s take on the wireless charging mat.
And in order to differentiate AirPower from its competition, Apple included some incredible
features, like the ability to place your apple watch, iPhone, and AirPods anywhere on the
mat to charge.
AirPower also allowed the iPhone to display the charging level of other devices on the
mat.
Features that had never been possible before with previous wireless charging products,
and this caused many people to wonder whether that kind of technology was possible at all.
But Phil Schiller assured us Apple knew how to do it.
And all of this technology was housed in a slim, compact design unlike anything else
on the market.
But there was a catch, AirPower never actually made it to market.
The initial release date of early 2018 came and went, and in March 2019 Apple announced
the AirPower project was cancelled, saying, "After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower
will not achieve our high standards.”
So in this video, we’re going to explore what gave Apple the confidence to announce
an unfinished product, and discuss the insurmountable problems they faced that ultimately led to
AirPower being cancelled.
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Now the biggest question I had after Apple cancelled AirPower wasn’t, “What prevented
Apple from making it?”
But rather, “What gave Apple the confidence to announce it?”
Because although the company has delayed products before, like the white iPhone 4, the AirPods,
and the HomePod, they’ve never announced a product that they weren’t certain they
could deliver.
That was, until AirPower.
And we know Apple didn’t have a working prototype of the product when it was announced,
because after the presentation the hands-on area featured AirPower units that didn’t
actually charge anything.
Which was very unusual for Apple, even the Apple Watch was demoed by employees after
its introduction, despite not being released for another seven months.
And if you listen closely to Phil Schiller’s choice of words when introducing AirPower,
you’ll get the impression that the product hadn’t been figured out yet.
[clip]
So why did Apple announce AirPower prematurely?
Well, I think it’s because of a couple factors.
First, there were engineers working on the project who genuinely believed AirPower’s
technology was viable.
And while there were also engineers who disagreed, Apple’s leadership decided to bet on the
idea that AirPower could be executed successfully.
Maybe because the project was entering its final stage of development, or perhaps Apple
had some sort of working prototype that seemed promising enough.
Another reason why Apple announced the product early was to make sure it was featured alongside
the new wireless charging iPhones.
That way customers wouldn’t buy third party wireless charging solutions and instead wait
for Apple to release AirPower.
And that’s exactly what all of us Apple fans did.
But little did we know Apple would run into serious hardware obstacles with AirPower that
ended up being impossible to overcome.
So what exactly were those problems?
Well, they can be broken down into three categories: Heat management, unreliable communication
between devices, and mechanical interference.
Let’s start with Airpower’s heat issues.
A problem that was brought up by John Gruber of the Daring Fireball back in September 2018.
He wrote, “AirPower really is well and truly f-----.
Something about the multi-coil design getting too hot — way too hot.
There are engineers who looked at AirPower’s design and said it could never work, thermally,
and now those same engineers have that “told you so” smug look on their faces.
Last year Apple was apparently swayed by arguments that they could figure out a way to make it
not get hot.
They were, clearly, wrong.
I think they’ve either had to go completely back to the drawing board and start over with
an entirely different design, or they’ve decided to give up and they just don’t want
to say so.”
And Gruber was exactly right.
As I mentioned earlier in the video, there were Apple engineers who didn’t think AirPower’s
design was thermally possible from the beginning, and that’s because of its multi-coil design.
Up until that point, there was no charging mat on the market that had more than 5 coils.
But according to several rumors, Apple was planning on including anywhere from 21 to
24 coils in AirPower, resulting in a heat management nightmare.
And because Apple wanted AirPower to be one of the thinnest mats available, there was
virtually no way to engineer efficient heat dissipation.
So why did Apple need to include so many coils to begin with?
Well, it was for a couple reasons.
In order to fulfill their promise of AirPower charging any device no matter where it’s
placed, Apple needed to eliminate what’re called “black spots.”
Or areas on a charging mat that don’t deliver any power, due to the absence of a charging
coil.
So the only solution is to layer multiple coils across the entire surface of the mat,
ensuring power can be delivered to a device that’s placed in any position.
But things get a lot more complicated when you consider the Apple Watch, which uses Apple’s
own proprietary wireless charging technology, rather than the Qi standard used with the
iPhone and AirPods.
So that meant AirPower had to feature a layer of Qi charging coils, plus a second layer
of Apple Watch charging coils.
All inside of a charging mat that was designed to be very thin and compact.
So you can probably imagine why engineers at Apple didn’t think the product could
be made.
Now let’s talk about the second problem AirPower faced, which was unreliable communication
between devices.
You see, Apple’s second promise was that their wireless charging mat would be able
to receive charging data from all the devices placed on it, and send that data to a charging
iPhone.
That way users could quickly and easily view the charging level of each device from the
iPhones display rather than building LED indicators into AirPower like we’ve seen on other charging
mats.
But this was a lot easier said than done.
Apple included a custom charging chip in AirPower to manage communication between devices, decide
which charging coils to activate, and monitor the charge levels for each device.
But Apple couldn’t get this chip to perform reliably.
The hardware and software teams had trouble establishing a line of communication between
AirPower and the devices it was powering.
And the technology became even more faulty when trying to send charging data from AirPods
or an Apple Watch through AirPower and to an iPhone to display all the device’s charging
levels.
On top of all this, AirPower had trouble deciding which coils to activate in order to deliver
the most efficient charge to the devices placed on it.
This led problems with uneven charging speed, since some devices received more power than
others.
So not only did AirPower have heat management issues, but it also was facing electronics
issues.
Meaning Apple wouldn’t be able to deliver on AirPowers two most important features:
placing your Apple devices anywhere, and viewing charge levels from your iPhone.
And without those two features, AirPower would essentially become exactly like every other
wireless charging mat on the market.
But Apple’s troubles didn’t stop there.
Because there was one last obstacle AirPower faced.
And that was with mechanical interference.
The large number of charging coils squeezed into AirPower meant interference was inevitable,
and it resulted in reduced charging efficiency and even more heat troubles.
Now Apple had some success in shielding each coil in a way that reduced interference, but
that led to even more complex circuitry that would’ve required AirPower to be thicker
and larger, a compromise Apple wasn’t willing to make.
So when Apple’s leadership realized these significant problems couldn’t be resolved,
they were faced with a difficult decision.
Make a watered-down version of AirPower that didn’t have the features Apple promised,
or cancel the product altogether and admit the concept was too ambitious.
And as we all know, Apple decided to cancel AirPower, which I think was the right decision.
Because imagine if Apple released AirPower that was faulty or didn’t work as advertised?
Or what if they released a crippled version of the product that didn’t offer any unique
benefits over its competition?
At that point, Apple would’ve received a serious amount of backlash for releasing a
product that wasn’t up to the company’s standards.
And that’s exactly why I think cancelling the product was the right move.
If you can’t deliver on the product you promised, then there’s likely no reason
to bring it to market at all.
But of course not everyone felt that way.
Many people were upset by AirPower’s cancellation, and some used it as evidence to prove that
Apple is doomed or that Tim Cook needs to be fired.
“LOL....man didn't really care bout this product but the continue fall of Apple is
accelerating.”
“Gone are the years where Apple innovated and was able to pull off the first private
supercomputer (Mac Pro), the thinnest laptop (MB Air), a media player/internet browser/phone
in one thing (iPhone), a new internet browsing device like a laptop (iPad).
Now they just say nope, can't do it.
Our bad.
Tim needs to go.”
“Tim Cook gotta go.. all he cares about is profit and Apple has devoted all their
resources to iPhone, abandoning mac..
Steve Jobs cared more about the Apple products and ecosystem not profit”
Now I clearly don’t agree with those comments since Tim Cook has been doing a phenomenal
at leading Apple since Job’s departure, but I do hope this reminds them that announcing
a product before it’s ready is a big risk that should be avoided if possible.
So after AirPower was cancelled, thousands of customers waiting on the product were forced
to look elsewhere for a wireless charging solution.
And this caused companies like Nomad to sell out of their most popular charging mats in
just hours.
In fact, the base station I bought was put on backorder and took three weeks to be shipped.
So there definitely would’ve been a very high demand for AirPower if it was in fact
released.
Now the last thing I want to discuss is the future of wireless charging.
Clearly Apple and other major tech companies are serious about advancing wireless charging
technology as much as possible.
Samsung recently announced their new Galaxy S10 smartphone which is capable of delivering
power to other wireless charging devices.
And I think we’ll see similar technology on the new iPhones when they’re introduced
this fall.
And while Apple’s goals for AirPower were too ambitious, things might change a few years
from now as wireless charging technology matures.
We may end up seeing the product after all, or perhaps an even better charging solution
that Apple develops using technology that isn’t available today.
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