Apple Cancels AirPower Product • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#451

Post by georgespencer » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 9:11 AM UTC

speedplane wrote: post #450

georgespencer wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be quite rare for a patent dispute to go on behind the scenes. There were a lot of leaks suggesting mass production was due to start. I would bet production did not start, and that early production runs had low yields due to the complexity of the product.

> Would be quite rare for a patent dispute to go on behind the scenes. Actually the opposite. Most patent disputes are resolved behind the scenes, long before anyone sues each other.

To my definition that makes it not a dispute! It's a commercial discussion with an agreement at the end of it.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#452

Post by NicoJuicy » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 9:11 AM UTC

rickyc091 wrote: post #311

_bxg1 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially weird for Apple, who aren't known for vaporware. And even Google wouldn't come out and say "we can't make this work", they'd just stop talking about it until it was eventually solvable down the line, or let it evaporate altogether. It's very odd to see a tech giant just hit a technological wall.

I appreciate that Apple was honest with their communication. Too often have I seen managers/CEOs employ the strategy of avoiding the hard conversation and letting the topic fade away.

Honest after the announcement you mean? So, thats, not honest.

They knew about it then and announced airpods with support for it, on stage...

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#453

Post by 1023bytes » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 9:13 AM UTC

urda wrote: post #265

GeekyBear wrote: post #67

Apparently, even the Chinese supply chain thought this product was going to go into production, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, whose sources inside Apple's supply chain are impeccable. However, good for Apple. They need to be more willing to say this product isn't good enough, and stop listening to those who say they are too secretive. They had a good thing going when they didn't comment on products under development (or…

Agreed. I much rather have a company like Apple just flat out say "we can't make this work to our standards, to our customer standards, and we're not comfortable with releasing this product this way." Versus say Google who'll just never mention it again or launch a broken version only to kill it off within two years.

If only they made the same decision abouut buutterfly keyboards.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#454

Post by seunosewa » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 9:14 AM UTC

GeekyBear wrote: post #67

Apparently, even the Chinese supply chain thought this product was going to go into production, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, whose sources inside Apple's supply chain are impeccable. However, good for Apple. They need to be more willing to say this product isn't good enough, and stop listening to those who say they are too secretive. They had a good thing going when they didn't comment on products under development (or…

When are they going to cancel the touchbar?

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#455

Post by ulfw » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 9:46 AM UTC

ehsankia wrote: post #361

_bxg1 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially weird for Apple, who aren't known for vaporware. And even Google wouldn't come out and say "we can't make this work", they'd just stop talking about it until it was eventually solvable down the line, or let it evaporate altogether. It's very odd to see a tech giant just hit a technological wall.

They usually only announce things that are being released in a week, or at most in a month or two. They've been breaking that rule a lot recently though. The whole services keynote was very strange for that reason.

Not anymore lately. There are a ton of pre-announcements under Cook (Airpower, Mac Pro announced years in advance, but also most of iOS 10 and 11 were announced 6-8 months before it made it - e.g. wireless fast charging). This whole odd services keynote had really nothing to launch besides their "News" (i.e. it's only magazines) product. The rest is coming 6+ months later

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#456

Post by vsl » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 9:52 AM UTC

spectramax wrote: post #409

sgustard wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They put themselves in that "no-win situation" by pre-announcing the product. If they were profiting by selling products based on future compatability with airpower, that could be fraud.

Literally every major company does this. Tesla announces their cars years ahead of production. Thousands of products are announced at the CES - cameras, phones, laptops, etc. Things go wrong sometimes after announcing a product. > that could be fraud No, it is certainly not.

Apple had reputation of not doing that. The last few years they do it all the time, are late all the time and can’t learn the lesson (see: last week’s announcements).

It’s not that common, except today’s Apple and, well, Tesla, to announce early and be very late delivering.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#457

Post by emdowling » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 10:09 AM UTC

thruhiker wrote: post #438

xuki wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs was their Head of Product :(.

I've heard product managers described as "mini-CEOs" before. I don't think it's a comprehensive description, but it speaks to ownership mentality I think.

Product Managers should never be mini-CEOs. That is a model naive, ego-driven junior PMs adopt.

Good PMs should be servant leaders, doing whatever it takes to ensure their team can have maximum impact and ownership. A big part of that is identifying new opportunities, both within the org and outside of it, and empowering engineers and designers to own what they are working on.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#458

Post by kkarakk » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 10:16 AM UTC

seunosewa wrote: post #454

GeekyBear wrote: post #67

Apparently, even the Chinese supply chain thought this product was going to go into production, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, whose sources inside Apple's supply chain are impeccable. However, good for Apple. They need to be more willing to say this product isn't good enough, and stop listening to those who say they are too secretive. They had a good thing going when they didn't comment on products under development (or…

When are they going to cancel the touchbar?

Right around the time they get around to cancelling the macbook in favor of ipad

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#459

Post by jplayer01 » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 10:16 AM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #367

ianai wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope it’s a sign of change to come. Their hardware has been actively moving from what users want to what their designers want (thinner is always better, ne legacy ports, no finger I’d, etc).

What makes you think you know better than Apple what most of their users want? I suspect you just know what you want, and why you want it, and are extrapolating from that to everyone else.

I'd assume that users want a keyboard that doesn't break with alarming frequency and isn't nearly impossible to replace. That may just be me though.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#460

Post by neotek » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 10:22 AM UTC

icedchocolate wrote: post #347

eridius wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple doesn't release products that have no distinguishing features other than "made by Apple in Cupertino". Accessories without distinguishing features they prefer to just work with third parties on (such as Belkin). In fact, I'd wager that this particular Belkin charger was done in cooperation with Apple: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HLZ42/belkin-boost-up-spe...

Not sure I agree. AirPods really have almost no distinguishing features from other earphones. They’re generally worse. The only “feature” is seeing their charge on your phone, which is a pretty lousy differentiator.

>AirPods really have almost no distinguishing features from other earphones.

You've got to be kidding. The kind of pairing made possible by Apple's W1 chip, and the completely cordless design, was absolutely and undeniably groundbreaking when the AirPods were first released. Even now you'd be hardpressed to find a pair of earphones that work as smoothly and seamlessly as AirPods do.