There’s speculation Apple messed up with its AirPower wireless charging mat

Apple’s promised wireless
charger was notably absent from its annual iPhone
launch.
Apple

• Apple made no mention of its wireless charging mat
  AirPower at its annual iPhone event, which it first previewed
  one year ago.
• Some tech commentators are speculating that the
  development of AirPower is behind schedule, and linked this to
  Apple’s acquisition of charging startup PowerbyProxi.
• 
  Bloomberg reported in June that Apple engineers were coming
  up against problems developing AirPower, including
  overheating.
• It’s a rare blooper for Apple, which is famously
  obsessive about perfecting the design of products before
  release. 

Apple fans waiting to hear about the company’s futuristic
wireless charging mat will have been disappointed on Wednesday,
as
the AirPower charger did not get a single mention at Apple’s
annual iPhone launch event.

Apple previewed AirPower last year, showing a flat pad that could
wirelessly charge multiple devices at once, such as an Apple
Watch, iPhone, and AirPods case. But there was, surprisingly, no
mention of the mat in Cupertino on Wednesday.

Now commentators are speculating that Apple has experienced some
kind of setback. 9to5Mac reported that
most mentions of AirPower have been scrubbed from Apple’s
website. According to 9to5Mac, the product page for last
year’s iPhone X mentioned AirPower and a release date of some
time in 2018. Since the iPhone X itself has been discontinued,
there’s no longer any mention of AirPower.

Tech
blogger and well-known Apple watcher John Gruber also weighed
in, noting that he could find a picture of an AirPower mat, but
no mention of the product itself on Apple’s site. “No one from
Apple I’ve spoken to today will say a word about AirPower other
than that they have nothing to say about it today. I wouldn’t be
surprised if it’s been scrapped, and they just don’t want to say
so yet,” he wrote on Wednesday.

Forrester analyst Thomas Husson told Business Insider he would be
surprised if Apple had scrapped AirPower altogether. 

“Given the importance of the battery life for the Apple Watch, it
would have been a nice way to sell accessories to consumers who
own multiple Apple devices and create a continuum of experiences
across the product portfolio,” he said.

“I would assume this is still the plan and that is only a matter
of months before we know more details and see an official product
launch.”

Apple announced in September last year that it would release
AirPower in 2018, but speculation about the precise release date
has varied. Shortly afterwards it was confirmed that
Apple had bought wireless charging company
PowerbyProxi in order to “help create a wireless
future,” according to Apple’s senior vice president of hardware
engineering Dan Riccio.

The wireless future seems to have stalled however, as
Bloomberg reported in June that engineers were struggling to
stop the mats from overheating. The same report suggested that

AirPower would be released in September.

Business Insider contacted Apple for comment.