There were no delays for new products at Steve Jobs, that is an accusation that is being heard more and more frequently in connection with Apple. New Mac Pro? Later. AirPlay 2? A few days before the last WWDC, almost a year after the feature was promised. AirPower? The AirPower wireless charging station has been on the long list of great new features since September 2017.
AirPower was introduced by Phil Schiller together with iPhone X and iPhone 8 as Wireless Charging Pad for the iPhone, Apple Watch and the also still outstanding new charger for the AirPods headphones in September 2017 and loosely promised for next year. According to Bloomberg, Apple is struggling to meet the internal June 2018 deadline because the Base Station is overheating.
Apple decided not to limit the Qi standard for inductive charging processes to individual devices. Rather, it should be possible to charge the telephone, watch and headphones simultaneously. Equipped with several charging coils, however, the devices would have to be matched to each other in their charging behaviour. The AirPower runs a slimmed-down version of the iOS that communicates with multiple devices. And this is precisely the reason why there are still problems which delay the announced product even further.
A working AirPower can be important for Apple if Jony Ive also wants to remove the Lightning connector on the iPhone on the way to the wireless future after the headphone connection. To make matters worse, we remember that Phil Schiller had promised to make multi-device Qi charging technology available to other companies. But now, with Tim Cook, delay becomes the rule. However, there were also delays at Steve Jobs. Think about the white iPhone 4.