Apple AirPower Reportedly Put Back Into Development Status

• The AirPower project isn’t dead after all, as the product is reportedly back in active development.
• The news comes from a tech leaker, while Apple has remained silent about it.
• The reports claim that Apple’s engineers are redesigning the coil to address overheating.

The last time we talked about the AirPower, it was precisely a year ago, when Apple decided to cancel its release. Simply put, the company concluded that no matter how hard their engineers had tried, the end product wouldn’t meet the required quality, performance, and design standards that underpin all Apple products. They stated that they remain believers of a wireless future but, since they canceled the project, everyone had to postpone their hopes for a wireless charging mat for much later. According to a tweet that came from tech leaker Jon Prosser yesterday, the AirPower has just been put back on track, and its development has been restarted.

AirPower isn’t dead 👀

The project is back on, internally. No guarantee that they’ll finalize and release it, but they haven’t given up yet and they’re trying to re-engineer the coils to displace heat more effectively. Prototyping is underway.

🧻🧻🧻🧻🧻 pic.twitter.com/tjbbViwGM2

— jon prosser (@jon_prosser) March 22, 2020

The leaker claims that Apple is working on various prototypes that are all being re-engineered from scratch, as the previous attempts were failing mainly in heat dissipation. However, it is clarified that none of the current designs supports the Apple Watch, and this is the biggest hurdle to overcome right now. If it doesn’t sustain Apple’s best-seller wearable, it should be considered a dead project again. So, Apple’s engineers are back to the drawing board, trying to re-engineer the coils and achieve more effective heat dissipation, addressing the overheating issues that had troubled the mat previously.

If what Prosser is saying is all true and accurate, Apple would have every reason to keep the project a secret now, as they wouldn’t want to have to deal with another public failure. They are setting the bar high, and that’s something we can all give them kudos for, but failing to meet their own standards is degrading their R&D in the eyes of the world, and that’s not good. That is especially the case when other manufacturers have stepped in to launch their own products in the market, promoting them as uncompromising realizations of what the AirPower would be like.

If you’re wondering about what are the chances of seeing Apple surprise-launch the AirPower, we’d still say they are slim. The wireless charging mats that we see in the market right now come with several compromises that Apple is not willing to accept, and launching an incomplete product that won’t support charging for the Apple Watch or the AirPods is extremely unlikely. It’s good to hear that Apple is back to working on the AirPower project, but we should not get our hopes high for now.