AirPower Wireless Charger Cancelled 18 Months After Announcement Due to Overheating
What happened
Apple announced AirPower in September 2017 as a charging mat capable of simultaneously charging iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods anywhere on its surface. Eighteen months later, Apple quietly cancelled it without shipping a single unit, citing thermal issues from the overlapping charging coil array that it could not resolve.[1]
What went wrong
Apple announced a product with a fundamental physics problem — multiple overlapping induction coils generating unacceptable heat — before the engineering problem was solved. The announcement created consumer expectation and competitive damage for 18 months while the problem proved intractable.[1]
Lesson learned
Hardware products should not be announced until the core technical risks are resolved. The physics of overlapping wireless charging coils were knowable at announcement time. Apple's own announcement schedule created pressure to ship a product that engineering could not make work.