Apple Cancels AirPower charge mat
While I realize that this “news” is a little old at this point (announced March 29th), the intention of this article is not to report on this announcement, but to write an analysis of this announcement’s ramifications to Apple. Let’s explore.
Think Different
Apple used this slogan for a time when it was touting its innovative approach to the creation of its devices and systems. However, Apple has pretty much abandoned this slogan after Steve Jobs’s passing.
Since the loss of Jobs, Apple’s innovation has waned, which has left industry pundits with a conundrum. Do these Apple expert journalists continue to be fanboys for this brand and “love everything Apple” or do they finally drop that pretext and begin reporting the realities of the brand?
I’ve never been an Apple “fanboy” in the sense that I “automatically love everything Apple”. There are too many legitimate journalists and social media influencers who already follow that trend. However, I won’t name any names, iJustine. Whoops. If you’re another of these people, you know who you are.
Think The Same
In recent years, Apple has been trailing its competition with its phone and other tech ideas. Ideas that have already been done, sometimes better than Apple. For example, the iPhone X is an iPhone version of the Galaxy Note 8. The Note 8 released months earlier than the iPhone X. The wired EarPods were simply Apple’s version of a similar Bose earbud. And… the AirPower would simply have been an Apple version of a Qi Wireless charging mat.
As you can see, Apple’s most recent innovations aren’t innovations at all. Even the AirPods, while wireless, are not new. While they do sound pretty good, they leave some to be desired for long wear-ability and comfort. They also take way too long to connect, when they decide to connect at all (at least the gen 1 AirPods). These are iterations of products that have already existed on the market.
The iPhone 1 demonstrates actual innovation. No one had created a smart phone like the iPhone when it came to exist. Sure, some handsets had limited apps and a few had a touch screen, but Apple took the handheld phone to a whole new level. The first iPad was also quite innovative. No other tablet was on the market at the time and offered something never before seen. Just look at the tablet market today!
Unfortunately, the innovation that was once so prevalent at Apple has evaporated after Jobs’s untimely death.
Qi
Inductive wireless charging is nothing new. It’s been a staple technology in Braun’s wireless toothbrushes since the early 90s. It was simply the next logical step to bring inductive charging to mobile devices. Samsung did that with its own Qi wireless charging mats (and by backing the Qi standard). These mats and phones were introduced in 2008.
With the introduction of the iPhone X model in November of 2017 (and other Apple phone models released that same year), Apple finally added induction charging to its handsets. That’s 9 years after Qi became a thing. That’s 9 years after Samsung had it on their handsets. There’s nothing at all innovative about wireless charging on an Apple device. Yes, it may have been a “most requested” feature, but it certainly was not innovative or even new. If anything, Apple decided it was time to fill a technology gap on their mobile devices… while with earlier phones they had refused to fill that gap. We won’t get into the whys of it all (ahem… Samsung).
With its iPhone X announcement, Apple also announced a new product called AirPower. This product would be a rival inductive charging mat to already existing Qi charging mats. The primary iterative difference between AirPower and the existing Qi charger bases is that the AirPower would output more power to wireless charge the iPhone much faster… perhaps even faster than a Lightning cable. We’ll never know now. The AirPower announcement also showed 3 devices charging simultaneous, including an AirPods case.
Unfortunately, Apple wasn’t able to release this product at the same time as the iPhone X. Apple announced they would release this charging mat sometime in mid-late 2018. This release date came and went without an announcement or release. By the end of March 2019 (nearly a year and a half after Phil Schiller announced it to the public), Apple officially pulled the plug on the AirPower product.
Everyone reading this announcement should take it as a sign of problems within Apple. And… here we are at the crux and analysis portions of this article.
The Apple Bites
With the cancellation of the AirPower, this signifies a substantial problem brewing within Apple’s infinite circle. If the engineers of what seems to be a relatively simple device cannot even manage to design and build a functional wireless charging base, a technology that’s been in use since the 1990s and in use in the mobile phone market for over 10 years now, how can we trust Apple to provide innovative, functional products going into the future?
This cancellation is a big, big deal to Apple’s reputation. If Apple cannot build a reasonably simplistic device after nearly a year and a half, what does this say about Apple’s current engineers on the whole?
Assuming Apple’s internal engineers were actually incapable of producing this product in-house, Apple could have farmed the product design out to a third party company (i.e., Samsung or Belkin) and had that third party design and build the product to Apple’s specs. It doesn’t seem that this product should have died on the vine, let alone be abandoned.
Instead of outright abandoning the product, Apple should have brought it to market in a different way. As I said, outright cancelling the product signifies much deeper problems within Apple. This is actually one of the first times I’ve actually seen Apple publicly announce a vapor product and then cancel said vapor product (albeit, over a year later). It’s a completely surprising, disappointing, unusual and highly unprecedented move by Apple… especially considering Apple’s new devices that desperately rely on this unreleased device. I guess this is why Apple has always been so secretive about product announcements in the past. If you cancel an unannounced product, no one knows. When you cancel a publicly announced product, it tarnishes your reputation… particularly when a functional product already exists on the market from other manufacturers (and competitors) and when the product is rather simplistic in nature. That’s a huge blow to Apple’s “innovative” reputation.
AirPods 2
The AirPower cancellation is also particularly disappointing and disheartening on the heels of the announcement of the AirPods 2 wireless charging case. The lack of the AirPower mat is a significant blow to one of the biggest features of the newest generation of AirPods. Effectively, without AirPower, the AirPods 2 are basically the same as the AirPods gen 1 except that the AirPods 2 offer a better “Hey Siri” support (and a better placed LED charge light).
The one feature that many people really looked forward to on the AirPods is basically unavailable. Sure, you can charge the AirPods 2 on a standard Qi wireless charger, but at a much slower rate than via the Lightning port. You don’t want to be sitting around waiting on a slow Qi charger to get the AirPods case fully charged. No, you’re going to plug it in to make sure you can walk out the door with a fully charged AirPods case. The case already charges slowly enough on a Lightning cable. There’s no reason to make it charge even slower by using a Qi charger. That’s the sole reason for the AirPower to exist.. to charge at much faster rates. Without AirPower, the reason to charge wirelessly has more-or-less evaporated.
Of course, you can also buy a wireless case for the AirPods gen 1, but what’s the point in that? With the AirPower cancelled, you have to invest in a Qi charger and live with its very slow charge speed for Apple’s brutal $80 price tag. No thanks. Even then, you don’t get any other benefit out of placing your AirPods gen 1 earbuds into a gen 2 wireless charging case for that $80. You might as well invest that $80 into a new set of AirPods gen 2, even though the Airpods 2 cost $199 (with wireless charging case) versus $159 for the gen 1 AirPods (without charging case).
Of course, in Apple’s typical form, they also offers the AirPods 2 without a wireless charging case for $159, the same price as the AirPods gen 1. But this is all diversionary minutiae.
Analysis
Apple’s level of innovations have been both flagging and lagging for several years. With the AirPower cancellation, it should now be crystal clear to not only journalists and analysts alike, but also to Apple’s fanboys that Apple’s luster has officially worn off. Apple’s once strong “reality distortion field” is now a distant memory.
Even the iPhone X isn’t fairing well in terms of durability of design just slightly over a year after its introduction. I’ve seen several people report FaceID failing over time, as well as other hardware problems on this phone model. A premium model phone at a premium price tag should hold up longer than this. Arguably, the iPhone X is one of Apple’s ugliest phones ever made, with that stupid unsightly “notch” covering up a portion of that expensive OLED screen.
It seems the iPhone 8 design (based on the iPhone 7 case design) is fairing much better than the iPhone X. Even the iPhone 7, which Apple still sells, holds up better. That should also be an indication of Apple’s current practical level of design. Of course, the problems showing in the iPhone X could be because there are more iPhone Xs in circulation than iPhone 8s. Still, the iPhone X is appearing more often in repair shops than the iPhone 8. That says something about the build quality and durability (or lack thereof) of the iPhone X’s design for that premium price tag.
Apple now needs to pull a rabbit out of a hat very soon to prove they still have the chops to not only innovate AND provide high quality goods, but be the first to the table with a new product idea or forever hold their peace and become an underdog in the tech industry. That doesn’t mean Apple won’t continue to sell product. It doesn’t mean Apple won’t design product. However, it does mean that the “fanboy” mentality that so many had previously adopted towards Apple’s products should finally evaporate, just as has Apple’s innovation. Before the AirPower cancellation announcement, we only had a hunch that Apple’s design wasn’t up to par. With the cancellation of the AirPower, we finally have confirmation.
Eventually, everyone must take off their rose colored glasses and see things as they really are at Apple. And with this article, I hope we’re finally to that point.
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Voice ads during your cell phone calls?
Just when you thought that advertisers couldn’t get any more annoying, along comes yet another technology that, on the surface, seems quite intrusive and may even become a privacy issue. This time, it’s on your cell phone.
Paying to hear ads?
It’s not as if cell phone plans and cell plan minutes are cheap. The average cost per minute is around 10 cents. Some postpaid plans may be able to get the cost down to around 7-8 cents per minute, but that’s only for high dollar high volume plans. The average small to mid-sized plan is usually around 10 cents per minute after taxes, fees and other charges have been tallied. With prepaid, the cost is 10 cents per minute. I’ve yet to find one carrier that has less than 10 cents per minute prepaid plans.
That said, because you’re paying for your service, you are also implicitly paying to not have advertising on your phone during your conversations with other people. Advertisers need to learn that when consumers are paying for something, advertising on that space is off-limits. If the advertisers want to help subsidize our costs for something, then we will be willing to tolerate external advertising. It’s a give and take process here. So, advertisers (and those enabling this new technology) need to understand this part of the equation.
What exactly is this technology?
Good question. It doesn’t have a cleverly coined name yet, so let’s call it ‘jam’ (as in they’re jamming up the airwaves with advertising in your cell phone call.. and it also rhymes with spam :). This new technology plans to use the carriers to interject audio advertising into the cell phone’s audio stream during a call. Specifically, during hold music and other ‘dead air’ times.
There’s really only one place in the call flow where such advertising can be injected with new audio and that’s on the carrier’s equipment. It’s also possible that it could happen right on the handset through an actively running app. Either way, ‘jam’ isn’t what people want.
Advertising during dead air? Why would we want that?
Well, the answer is as consumers, we don’t. So, why enable this technology? Because someone can. That and that someone thinks they can make money from this service as well. Good luck with that business model. Anyway, the idea is relatively simple, but definitely not pleasant. Worse, though, is that the advertiser may even have your personal buying habits and interject ‘relevant’ advertising into your call. Not that relevant advertising is bad, but it’s rather creepy when it’s injected into audio conversations of a cell phone. So, you’re on hold waiting for someone to fix your computer and then injected audio steps in and advertises for that vacation to Hawaii you searched on the web just an hour before you called. Ugh, creepy.
Worse, though, is what happens if their dead air recognizing routine fails and it begins injecting advertising in the middle of your conversation? Ewww… now not only will you hear the ad, but likely so will your caller. If you happen to be on a business call… well, all I can say is ewww.. messy and embarrassing.
Opt-out
For such a technology to have any hope of working to even any degree, there must be an opt-out mechanism. If there isn’t such an opt-out system, users will be calling their carriers to complain, that’s a guarantee… especially if such an advertisement interrupts a business call.
Jam on businesses
The primary target for this advertising system is during hold time. I admit that hold music is often boring and repetitive. But, does that give the right to an unrelated third party to inject jam into your phone for their benefit? And, what of the business on the other end providing hold music? They may have advertising that they are counting on to up-sell their newest products. Yet, if jam interrupts and begins selling ‘relevant’ advertising in the form of a competitor, how is fair to the company you’re calling? This system has now injected competitive advertisements without that company’s consent. I see this as a lawsuit just waiting to happen.
Carrier and phone level access
Frankly, I’m surprised that the wireless carriers would even allow this level of access into their network. Unless, of course, these companies can figure out a way of doing it directly into the handset. Either way, it will require very low level access to either the handset or the carrier network to inject this level of audio into a conversation. The trouble, of course, is what happens when their system goes haywire and injects audio at inappropriate times? And, you know this will happen. This isn’t going to make either caller very happy, especially if this happens during a business call or a conference call. I just see failure written all over this.
Useless excess: Fashion Victim Edition
For whatever reason today, a lot of people can’t seem to temper their purchasing of useless things. I have to admit that I’ve been guilty of this on occasion myself, but I try to exercise restraint with purchases by asking, “Do I have a real need?”
Purchasing excess
I see lots of people buying things where they haven’t really justified a need in their lives. I’d say the most egregious example of this useless excess is the iPad. So many people walked into the purchase of this device not knowing how it would enrich their lives, how they might use it or what it benefits it might offer. Is the iPad useless excess? I’d say so. I still haven’t yet fully justified the purchase of this device for myself. The only justification I have right now is the larger screen and reading email in a portable way. Those are the justifications I’ve been able to come up with. Since a I don’t avidly read digital books, that part isn’t really overall that useful me. I do have an iPod Touch and have found this device to immensely enrich my life, though. It solved my portable music need, it has a browser, a Kindle app and email and a few admin apps for in-a-pinch situations. It has a long battery life so I have something to use pretty much anywhere, again, in-a-pinch. So, the cost and use for this isn’t useless excess for me. On the other hand, the iPad isn’t that portable, so really doesn’t work for things like portable music.
Is an iPad worth $500? Not yet for me. However, there are times where I’m walking around the office and having an iPad in hand could come in handy for spot email reading or forwarding an email. Since it also supports some administrative tools, I might even be able to justify it for the use of those tools. On the other hand, a netbook is a more powerful hardware tool (i.e., usb ports, networking ports, SD card slot, etc). So, hardware-wise, a Netbook is much more justified for what I do. They’re just a bit more cumbersome to use than an iPad. On the other hand, composing email on an iPad is basically useless. I’d much rather have a real keyboard, so I’d definitely need a dock for extended use of an iPad.
Keeping up with the Jones’
A lot of useless excess stems from ‘social’ reasons. Some people just want to show off their money. The reality is, I find this disturbing. Why would you want to buy something just to walk around and flaunt it? I really don’t relish the thought of being robbed or mugged. I mean, I can somewhat understand fashion. Not so much fashion excess (i.e., diamond studded bling), but wearing fashion to accentuate yourself we have become accustomed to. I don’t personally go for high fashionista, though. Useful fashion yes, excess fashion no. Unfortuantely, an iPad is not a fashion accessory. No computer or electronic device is (other than those trashy flashing earrings). So, why must people treat Apple products (and some computers and phones) as fashion when it clearly isn’t. You should always buy a computer for a need in your life, not because your next door neighbor has one or you ‘think’ it might be useful.
Coffee table paperweights
Now that the iPad has been out for about 9 months, I’m still not finding a solid use for the iPad in my personal life. For business use, I have a couple reasons (cited above), but these reasons are not yet enough to justify a $500 expense. In fact, I would think there’s going to be a growing used market for iPads very quickly here. People will realize they don’t need or use them and will need the money more. Especially when it is no longer the ‘chic’ device (and that’s quickly approaching). Right now is also the prime time to get rid of your iPad, not before it goes out of ‘fashion’. Additionally, it’s almost guaranteed that by spring 2011, Apple will have a new model iPad ready to ship. This will majorly devalue the resale value of the 2010 iPad. So, if you want to sell your iPad for any decent amount of change, you should consider doing it now. Otherwise, sitting on it will only devalue it down to probably the $150-200 range by end of 2011 and less then that by 2012.
By now, people should really know if the iPad has a use in their life. Only you can answer that question, but if the most you do is turn it on once a week (or less), it’s a paperweight. You should probably consider selling it now before the new iPad is released if you want any return on your investment. Granted, you may have paid $500, but you’re likely only to get about $200-250 (16GB version) depending on where you sell. If you put it on eBay as an auction, you might get more money out of it ($450, if you’re lucky). By this time next year, though, you probably won’t get half that amount on eBay.
As another example, see the Wii. Now that the Wii has been out for several years, it is no longer the ‘chic’ thing to own. Today, people are likely purchasing it because they want to play a specific game title. And, that’s how it should be. You should always buy computer gear for the software it runs, not because it’s the ‘thing to have’. Wii consoles are now in a glut and easy to find. So, if you want one today, it’s very easy to get them.
Gift excess
I know people who buy gift items not because it’s a useful gift, but because it’s the thing to have. Worse, though, is that the person who receives the gift doesn’t even use it or carry it. In this example case, it’s an iPad 64GB version. Yet, this person doesn’t carry it around or, indeed, even use it. Instead, they prefer to use their 2-3 year old notebook. What does that say about the usefulness of such useless excess?
Is the iPad considered useless excess? At the moment, yes. There may be certain professions that have found a way to use the iPad as something more than a novelty, but I’ve yet to see a business convert to using iPads as their sole means of corporate management. For example, it would say something if FedEx would adopt the iPad is their means of doing business. Instead of the small hand scanners, they could carry around the iPad to do this work. Oh, that’s right, there’s no camera on the iPad, so scanning isn’t even useful.
While this article may seem to specifically bash the iPad, it isn’t intended to focus solely on them. The iPhone is another example of useless excess. You pay $200 just to get the phone, you’re locked into a 2-4 year contract with at least $80 a month. And, the worst part, the iPhone isn’t even a very good phone. Dare I say, Nokia and Motorola still make better quality phone electronics than Apple ever has. Apple is a computer maker, not a phone maker. So, they still haven’t the experience with phone innards. So, when talking to people on the iPhone, the voice quality, call quality and clarity suffer over better made handsets. Again, people justify the purchase of an iPhone 4 because of the ‘Apps’, not because of quality. Worse, though, is that many people buying iPhones are doing so because it’s ‘the thing to have’, not because it’s actually useful in their lives. If the only thing you find yourself doing with the iPhone is talking on the phone, then you’re a victim of useless excess.
How to curb useless excess
Ask yourself, ‘How will this thing make me more productive, or solve a problem?’ If you cannot come up with an answer, it’s useless excess. Once you find at least one real need for a device, then the purchase is justified. If you just want it to have it, that’s useless excess. Just having something because you can doesn’t make you a better person. It just makes you a victim of useless excess. Simply because you can afford something doesn’t mean you should.
How do you justify an iPad purchase? For example, if you intend to mount it into a door of your kitchen as an internet recipe retrieval device and you bake or cook every day, that would be one way it could enrich your life. Although, it’s also not impervious to water or other wet ingredients, so you might want to cover it to avoid those issues. In other words, for a computer to not be considered useless excess, it would need to be used every day to provide you with useful information you can’t otherwise get.
If you’re looking for a holiday gift, don’t just buy an iPad because you can, buy it because the person will actually use and actually needs it to solve a problem.
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