Apple has promised to deliver its first wireless charging mat, and it will be known as “AirPower”. The claim had been made in 2018 but for reasons unknown, it hasn’t seen the light of the day until now. But rumors suggested that Apple has finally put AirPower into production mode and this indicates that it might be released soon this year.
A tweet by ChargerLAB indicated that accessories manufacturer Luxshare Precision has probably started producing the AirPower and was originally reported by MacRumors. Luxshare Precision is apparently the same manufacturer who are associated with manufacturing AirPods and USB-C cables for Apple. ChargerLAB tweeted and said that Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, Pegatron, will also be involved in the mass-production of AirPower from January 21 onwards. The tweet also stated that a company employee has informed ChargerLAB that AirPower will have a total of three coils in an “8-7-7 configuration,” from bottom to top.
Apple AirPower: Another source claims Pegatron is set to start mass produce AirPower at Jan 21. Pegatron is also an Apple OEM in Asia. The company employee says AirPower has total three layers of coils in 8-7-7 configuration from bottom to top. pic.twitter.com/xsboO47PGR
— ChargerLAB (@chargerlab) 12 January 2019
This month, developer Steve Troughton-Smith also tweeted regarding the fact that he heard of Apple fixing the issues which they faced with AirPower, which clearly indicates the credibility of the new reports. The issues stated by Smith were mostly related to overheating, which in turn affected Apple’s custom charging chip and prevented it from working properly. The mat has been designed to charge more than one device at a time, and this was a bigger challenge for Apple which they hadn’t anticipated.
Apple AirPower charging mat was first unveiled during the company’s iPhone launch event in September 2017. At that time, the company promised to make the product available in 2018 itself. But that never happened. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who is a respected Apple watcher, in June claimed that the delay in launch had been caused due to the challenges faced by the manufacturing of charging mat.
After the iPhone XS ₹, 94,036 (Review) launch in 2018, AirPower charging mat had been mentioned in a getting started guide as well as in the iOS 12.1 code. But 4 months past that time, no developments have been made. Apple-focused analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, in October, predicted the AirPower would arrive at Apple’s Spring event in 2019.
If the reports are to be believed, Apple might have finally figured out a solution to their overheating issue. Apple might refresh their iPad mini and introduce a new 10-inch iPad in the first half of 2019. AirPower will finally debut in the same venue, along with the promised wireless charging case for the AirPods.
