Summary
- Back in 2017, Apple gave us a sneak-peak of a new product it had been working on: AirPower.
- The ambitious charging pad accessory was to feature numerous copper charging coils, which were designed to allow for synchronous device charging.
- Infamously, AirPower never shipped, and Apple quickly pivoted to a magnet-based charging solution dubbed MagSafe — here’s why the company made the right call.
Inductive charging has been around for decades — eventually, the tech was incorporated into the smartphone experience, starting with 2009’s excellent Palm Pre. Later on, wireless top-up capabilities started to appear on a range of Android and Windows Phone handsets, raising the question as to when Apple would adopt wireless charging in its ever-popular iPhone lineup.
Our answer came in the fall of 2017, when Apple announced its first Qi wireless charging-compliant lineup of phones — the iPhone 8, the iPhone 8 Plus, and the eye-catching iPhone X. By placing one of these new glass-backed devices on a charging pad, your battery would top up without the need to directly plug in a cable. At this same press conference, the company gave us a rare sneak peek at an upcoming accessory it’d been working on: AirPower.
At this same press conference, the company gave us a rare sneak peek at an upcoming accessory it’d been working on: AirPower.
Unlike traditional wireless charging pads, which feature a single copper coil, the AirPower charging mat was planned to ship with a number of coils tightly packed together. The benefits of going through this extra engineering effort were twofold; firstly, it would solve the problem of misalignment and inefficient power transfer. Secondly, it would allow you to juice up multiple devices at the same time, on a single charging surface.
“Apple gave a sneak peek of AirPower, an Apple-designed wireless charging accessory coming in 2018, which offers a generous active charging area that will allow iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus or iPhone X customers to simultaneously charge up to three devices, including Apple Watch Series 3 and a new optional wireless charging case for AirPods,” said Apple at the time.
However, Apple’s plans didn’t go according to plan, and the tech giant ultimately canceled the release of AirPower, citing quality-control issues. At the time, this news came as a major shock — it was perplexing that Apple would announce such a product and not follow through with a launch.
At the time, this news came as a major shock.
“After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have canceled the project, said then-Apple SVP of hardware engineering, Dan Riccio (via TechCrunch).
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In retrospect, magnets were the obvious way forward
At the time, it was certainly disappointing that Apple had given up on AirPower’s ambitious premise. The concept of placing your entire ecosystem of iDevices onto a single charging pad was an alluring one, to be sure.
It became clear, however, that the engineering efforts needed to make AirPower a reality were simply too gargantuan. Wireless charging coils generate heat due to the inherent inefficiency of the tech, and the addition of multiple, tightly packed coils poses additional heat and safety concerns.
As it would turn out, Apple had another plan up its sleeve: the company pivoted in a new direction and developed MagSafe.
As it would turn out, Apple had another plan up its sleeve: the company pivoted in a new direction and developed MagSafe, an ingenious magnetic ring system that allows for perfect charging coil alignment.
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While many still mourn the loss of AirPower, I’m unabashedly happy that the product never saw the light of day. Magnets and inductive charging are a match made in heaven, both from an efficiency and a user convenience standpoint.
Aside from the fact that magnets are simply fun to interact with, MagSafe is superior to its AirPower forebearer in just about every regard. Undue energy loss is mitigated thanks to the magnetic alignment system, and the tactile ‘latching’ of a device onto a charging pad is a satisfying one. As an added bonus, MagSafe alleviates the anxiety of accidentally nudging your device off of its charging pad and not noticing until the next morning.
Aside from the fact that magnets are simply fun to interact with, MagSafe is superior to its AirPower forebearer in just about every regard.
Magnets and wireless charging are such an excellent pairing, in fact, that Apple went ahead and donated the concept to the Wireless Power Consortium for use in its Qi2 charging specification. These days, there’s a burgeoning market filled with excellent MagSafe and Qi2-compatible charging pads, stands, cases, and other accessories.
AirPower maintains a small-yet-dedicated base of fans wishing for Apple to reconsider its stance on the product’s cancelation, but I’m decidedly not a part of this camp. Each evening, I plop my iPhone onto its magnetic charging stand next to my bedside table, and I wouldn’t want to have it any other way. In fact, if it weren’t for AirPower’s untimely demise, I may well have given up on wireless charging in its entirety. For this reason alone, I owe a dept of gratitude to Apple’s ill-fated power pad.
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