There’s bad news for Apple fans who have been waiting 18 months to find out when they could purchase an AirPower wireless charger.
Apple announced on Friday that it is cancelling plans to release an AirPower charging pad, citing concerns the product won’t live up Apple’s “high standards.”
"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," Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, said in a statement to Fortune.
AirPower was first teased at Apple’s iPhone X event in September 2017, where wireless charging was one of the features touted in the new iPhone. Apple said AirPower would ship the next year, however the company provided no answers for Apple fans who were growing impatient for an answer as to when they could get their hands on the new hardware.
There’s a reason why Apple diehards were eager to own an AirPower mat. Apple promised the ability to charge up to three Apple products at once, providing a one-stop charging solution for people to power up their iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch.
While the idea generated excitement, Apple reportedly struggled with engineering problems. There were reports that the multi-coil design caused the charging mat to overheat, making it too hot to safely, and effectively, charge Apple devices. Charging multiple devices at once also created interference issues, according to another report. The project marked a rare hardware misstep for the Cupertino company.
Ultimately, more than 550 days after AirPower was first announced, Apple decided to pull the plug on the project, which means consumers will still be stuck charging their Apple devices the old-fashioned way--or on a non-Apple brand wireless charger--at least for now.
