Apple announced the AirPower wireless charging mat back in 2017. Since then, there have been rumors upon rumors about an impending launch at any given time.

Apple’s original launch window was before the end of 2017. However, it soon broke down and, throughout 2018, there was semi-consistent speculation that Apple was “just around the corner” to actually launching it. But, it looks like we won’t be seeing AirPower anytime soon. Or ever, for that matter.

TechCrunch has the bad news today. As many had expected to see AirPower launch today, we’ve actually been dealt the opposite news: AirPower is cancelled. Here is Apple’s Dan Riccio on the cancellation, which Apple is apologizing for:

“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,” said Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in an emailed statement today.”

It’s worth noting that the construction of the AirPower was at odds with the industry standard up to this point. The AirPer consisted of three layers of coils, which no other company had attempted to utilize. And now we know that the AirPower was unable to “achieve” the “high standards” set in place by Apple for its products.

Apple does note that it’s not giving up on wireless experiences, and it’s possible that it will try again with a different wireless charging mat. One with a different design than the AirPower. But, as it stands right now, the AirPower wireless charging mat is officially cancelled and we can go ahead and stop looking forward to it.

Our Take

The idea of AirPower was a good one, but this almost always felt a little inevitable. Considering how many times the company scrubbed AirPower from its website, or stayed quiet on the accessory, it’s never really felt like a device that was actually going to launch. It looks like owners of the second-generation AirPods with a wireless charging case will need to get a different wireless charging mat.

We Want To Hear From You

Are you sad about this news at all? Frustrated? Or had you already written off AirPower?

[Via TechCrunch]