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Apple Cancels Long-delayed AirPower Charging Mat (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

One and a half years after announcing a wireless charging mat for iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods called AirPower, Apple has unexpectedly cancelled the accessory. From a report: It notably missed its expected shipping dates multiple times, including a potential release alongside the second-generation version of AirPods and charging case this week. "After much effort, we've concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project," said Apple SVP of Hardware Engineering Dan Riccio in a statement today. "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." Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, adds, "This is fairly unprecedented and unbelievable. The AirPods even have a picture of the AirPower on the box."

1 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Vaporware lifecycle ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And here we have a stunning example of the vaporware lifecycle ...

    1) Coming real soon now, the super awesomeness
    2) Coming a little later than planned, the mostly super awesomeness
    3) Coming still further down the road, the almost kinda sorta super awesomeness
    4) Coming very far in the future, something which may or may not resemble what we promised as the super awesomeness but with fewer features
    5) Well, as it turns out, we have no idea how to build that super awesomeness after all and we're cancelling it

    If the product doesn't exist in a demo-able form, it's vaporware, and it may never exists at all.

    This sounds like Apple is starting to become a little more prone to vaporware.