It wasn’t all that long ago that Apple enthusiasts would mock companies like Microsoft for announcing seemingly cool products that never shipped on time, if at all. Oddly enough, Apple over the past few years has fallen into the same bad habit of introducing products that ship embarrassingly behind schedule. Apple’s AirPods, for example, shipped more than two months later than expected and, upon actually launching, were incredibly hard to find.
The most egregious example of an Apple product that didn’t ship on time is of course Apple’s wireless charging mat, a product dubbed AirPower. Originally introduced in September of 2017 alongside the iPhone X, AirPower is designed to let users wirelessly charge their phone, Apple Watch, and AirPods case all at the same time. Flash forward 16 months and AirPower is still nowhere to be seen. What’s more, we haven’t heard a peep about the product from Apple, leaving many to wonder if it would ever launch or if Apple perhaps scrapped it entirely.
All that said, ChargerLAB’s Twitter account on Friday recently revealed, citing an anonymous source from the supply chain, that AirPower may at long last appear on store shelves in the near future.
“AirPower is finally coming,” the tweet reads. “We just learned from credible source in supply chain that the manufacture Luxshare Precision has already started producing Apple AirPower wireless charging pad. Luxshare Precision is also the maker of Apple AirPods and USB-C cables.”
Bolstering the report, ChargerLAB published another tweet today with corroborating information from another source familiar with Apple’s plans.
“Another source claims Pegatron is set to start mass produce AirPower at Jan 21,” the tweet reads. “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.”
It’s also worth noting that reputed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo about two months ago issued an investor note claiming that AirPower could launch sometime during the first quarter of 2019.
As to why AirPower has been delayed, there have been numerous reports pointing to tremendous technical challenges involved in bringing the product to market, including complex circuitry and ensuring that the device doesn’t overheat.