Insane Apple products that NEVER launched

March 1, 2025Accessories

Insane Apple products that NEVER launched

AirPower
Apple never released AirPower, a product it promised would be available in 2018.
If you’re unfamiliar, Apple unveiled “AirPower" at its September 2017 iPhone event, which was supposed to allow iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods owners to charge all three devices wirelessly at the same time. Apple stated that it would be available in 2018, but it never was.
It’s an unusual omission for Apple, which normally follows through on product announcements.
Apple did not mention AirPower or its status at any of its events this year, including one in March where it revealed new iPads, its developer conference in June, the annual iPhone event in September, and a Mac event in October.
Some people attempted to ask Apple at the iPhone launch if the company planned to discuss AirPower publicly, but a representative stated that the day’s events were only focused on the products discussed on stage — the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR — and not other devices.
After the September 2018 iPhone event, Apple mysteriously began removing all references to AirPower from its website. Around the same time, plugged-in Apple writer John Gruber speculated that AirPower was experiencing overheating issues and had been “scrubbed." That indicates AirPower was getting too hot while charging three devices at once.
“Some engineers looked at AirPower’s concept and said it could never operate thermally… “I suspect they’ve had to go back to the drawing board and start over with a whole different design, or they’ve decided to quit up and just don’t want to admit it," Gruber remarked at the time.
AirPower would have been appealing to consumers who frequently purchase Apple products. Instead of plugging in an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods, all three may be placed on a pad and charged wirelessly. Apple would have needed to release a new wireless charging case for AirPods, which might still be included in a future model.
In recent years, Apple has been vocal about its desire for wireless accessories. In 2016, Apple removed the headphone port from the iPhone 7 to promote their wireless earbuds, AirPods. The next year, the business included wireless charging in its new iPhone models.
Apple Interactive Television Box
The Apple Interactive Television Box was a set-top box developed in collaboration with a number of national telecommunications companies, including British Telecom and Belgacom. From 1994 to 1995, prototypes of the device were tested in portions of the United States and Europe, but the product was scrapped shortly after and was never mass-produced or commercialized.
The set-top box was created to serve as a bridge between the consumer and an interactive television provider. The unit’s remote control would let a user select what content would be displayed on a connected television, as well as provide fast forward, rewind, and other capabilities. It is analogous to a current satellite receiver or TiVo unit in this way. Unlike TiVo, the STB would merely forward the user’s selections to a central content server rather than releasing the material itself. There were also plans for game shows, educational material for youngsters, and other types of content made available by the device’s interactive capabilities.
Copland
At Apple, Copland was essentially an existential nightmare. With good reason, author Owen Linzmayer titled his chapter on the project “The Copland Crisis" in his excellent (and long-overdue) book Apple Confidential.
For years, Apple consumers and workers (correctly) argued that Macs provided a significantly superior user experience than PC owners “enjoyed." When news got out about Windows 95, Apple realized it needed to drastically redesign its operating system in order to keep up with Microsoft’s developments.
The Mac operating system needed to be more than merely marginally ahead. With Macs costing far more than PCs and losing market share, Cupertino needed to really push things forward.
With Mac OS Copland, Apple tried to stay ahead of Windows 95
In March 1994, Apple released Mac OS Copland. It intended to be a complete top-to-bottom rethink of Mac OS, named after American composer Aaron Copland, years before Steve Jobs completed it with the UNIX-based OS X.

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