Apple AirPower - is it gone or making a comeback?
When Apple revealed its AirPower charging pad, people were excited. Plonk your iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch down all anyhow on a sleek white pad, and watch them magically charge.
Alas, it didn’t happen. Apple announced it was no longer developing the magical-looking pad and many people, including me, were disappointed. There are rival versions like the excellent AirUnleashed 2, of course.
But it now seems like Apple is still working on a multi-device charger. Well, we’ve already got the neat and portable Apple MagSafe Duo that charges iPhone and Apple Watch together (and you can charge AirPods on it, too).
Now, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has said that Apple is looking to a future with chargers that do more than one device. That’s good news, and reiterates what Bloomberg said in the summer when it was reported that a successor to the AirPower that never was, was in development. As Gurman, in his weekly Power On newsletter points out, “There’s a reason why it planned to launch the device in the first place in 2017.” I think that’s right and I agree with Gurman that when Apple gets an idea between its teeth, it’s reluctant to give up on it.
He also says that Apple is also looking into short- and long-distance wireless charging devices which is several steps further on from the induction charging the iPhone and AirPods use.
Gurman says that Apple “imagines a future where all of Apple’s major devices can charge each other. Imagine an iPad charging an iPhone and then that iPhone charging AirPods or an Apple Watch.”
Quite the tower of devices, then. This would require reverse charging, something Huawei introduced in its phones some years ago and which other brands, though not yet Apple, have also featured.
Wireless charging, for now, is slower than cabled chargers, so why is Apple so keen? Well, I think it’s been moving towards a cable-free future as fast as it can. You can only charge an Apple Watch wirelessly, for instance.
And there’s another reason apart from philosophical: the European Union is dead against electronic waste and is passing laws so that fewer cable connections will be permitted on some electronic goods. Specifically, this would lead to the eradication of Lightning connections as all manufacturers moved towards USB-C instead. This is a move that Apple, to put it lightly, does not care for.
If, on the other hand, the iPhone and iPad only charged wirelessly, like the Apple Watch, then maybe we’ll see the day when there are no cables in the iPhone box, just as the power plug and headphone cable have already been removed.
