Few people remember Airpower announcement in 2017. It’s understandable, of course, because this wireless charging solution had to share the spotlight, in a well-remembered keynote, with the introduction of the iPhone, the debut of Face ID (and its characteristic notch, of course) and thus the one that launched smartphones with a “full-screen” front. .

For those who don’t remember, which I imagine will be quite a few, Airpower was a charging base designed to accommodate iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods simultaneously.. In theory, it was supposed to offer more flexibility than Qi-type wireless chargers, which require some precision in placing the devices we want to charge on their surface, in addition to other interesting and/or striking features, such as displaying the same image on the device’s screen.

To achieve this flexibility, it was necessary to place quite a few coils under its surface, which presented a significant thermal problem. Apple already knew this when it first announced Airpower, which explains why its announcement was undated, but despite this, successive iterations of its prototypes added more coils to provide more flexibility in placement. Obviously, this only made the overheating problem worse, and Apple eventually canceled the project in 2019.

AirPower Prototype (B431). This version includes 15 charging coils, works well with charging multiple devices at once (causes heating problem with MagSafe compatible AirPods). Before 21 coil revisions (March 17, 2017, most done in June) #appleinternal pic.twitter.com/BUfjen5IQV

— Kosutami (@KosutamiSan) December 18, 2023

As we told you before, the problems with temperature regulation were known, but until now we did not have such a clear testimony, as shared by the well-known Apple collector Kosutami, which we can read on MacRumors, where it is said that a working Airpower unit with 15 coils caused the case of some AirPods to start melting.

This happened, as I say, with the 15-coil Airpower, so we can easily imagine the problem being even worse on multi-unit models. However, Kosutami was able to verify that if the devices were perfectly aligned in a very specific layout, there was no heat problem, so Apple could change the approach and establish unique positions for the devices. However, and given that it was presented as a much more flexible solution than existing wireless charging systems, after the introduction of this change it would mean de facto removing one of its main strengths.

Since its cancellation, there have been rumors from time to time that Apple is still betting on the proposal, and that Airpower is still in the future plans of those from Cupertino. However, as the years go by and how MagSafe consolidation is greaterseems less likely.