The AirPower is now officially Apple's longest-running vaporware

Granted, Apple delayed an unprecedented amount of products last year, chief among which was the iPhone X that made a cameo a month after the other two new iPhones hit the shelves. Then came the true wireless AirPods buds that shipped three months after their announcement in earnest, as well as the HomePod smart speaker, but nothing compares to the AirPower's delay. In fact, here's a look at Apple's unpleasant habit, acquired since its first Watch announcement, to ship products way later than their unveiling:

It's been a transitional year for Apple, with all eyes on the iPhone X sales, and the efforts to deliver unique propositions like the Face ID kit, the price-to-value AirPods, or the stellar-sounding HomePod, yet how hard can a charging mat be? Apple seems to have shot itself in the foot here since it detailed the pad as capable of topping off three Apple devices at once - an iPhone, Apple Watch, and the AirPods. To achieve this, it has to both come up with a new, wireless charging case for its Bluetooth buds, but also provide even distribution of the whopping 29W output, and that's what might be keeping it late. Apple actually does advertise the AirPower as "ultrathin," you know.

Not long ago, the Taiwanese supplier industry complained about impossible demands from Apple regarding "glass passivated package (GPP) bridge rectifiers" which may go into the AirPower. While the technology involved has been around for a while, the requirements reportedly are that those parts are wrapped in very slim packages, and that's where production might have hit a snag. 

We keep our hopes high for the AirPower, but, 9 months after its announcement, it's still vaporware, let alone the pricing. We hope that Apple is at least intending to unwrap it with the eventual updated AirPods this fall, with an always-on Siri and W2 co-processor inside, which should come complete with a wireless charging case then, too. There is no shortage of options to pump electrons wirelessly through the glass backs of the iPhone 8, Plus and X, if you so desire, it's just that the real AirPower deal is still up in the air.