In the last few months, there has been an expectation of seeing the arrival of AirPower to the market this September. They even speculated about a possible price of $ 150 for the accessory, but the special event for the new iPhones came without any mention to it, as we discussed in this editorial.
It is clear and evident that all this happened due to technical problems with the product, but from yesterday to today Sonny Dickson brought some possible extra details about these difficulties faced by Apple. There are three main problems, according to his sources:
- Heat management: current AirPower prototypes overheat easily, which ends up impairing the devices placed on it and even affects the functioning of its power management chip (which runs a special version of iOS).
- Communication between devices: As Apple demonstrated in the original AirPower announcement, we can see on the iPhone screen the recharge status of the Apple Watch and AirPods placed on the base. This communication between the devices still has many bugs, causing inaccuracy in general levels of recharge.
- Mechanical and interference problems: AirPower's complex internal mechanism, which consists of between 21 and 24 coils in order to accommodate the three devices placed on it, remains a challenge for Apple’s engineering team. Numerous designs have been tested, but there are still serious interference problems, which reduce recharge efficiency and contribute to the AirPower overheating.
Patent applications filed by Apple give a vague idea of ​​the complexity of the thing:
Credit: Patently AppleAt this point, considering the fact that Apple has removed almost all references to AirPower from its website, there is already a big doubt if it will ever see the light of day. If this happens, it is practically certain that it will no longer be in 2018 and, possibly, the final product will be somewhat different from what was originally presented (at least, maybe a little wider and thicker).
It is not uncommon to see Apple working on “everyday” products and introducing totally different concepts and features, which put its version at a different level from the rest of the market (including the price factor). It seems to be exactly the case here, but it may be that she was a little too bold in the prerequisites of this project, at least considering the current technical limitations.
And, obviously, Ma brutally erred in announcing the AirPower at a stage where it was clearly not even close to being ready for sale.
