Gurman: Apple is still working on a multi-device charger, other short and long-distance wireless chargers, and reverse wireless charging for its devices
Despite its failed AirPower experiment a few years ago, Apple is reportedly still working on a multi-device charger for its products.
Context & Ripple Effects
This report closes a five-year loop in Apple's wireless-charging arc. Back in 2016, Bloomberg reported Apple was pursuing wireless charging that works over a distance for iOS devices; what shipped instead was AirPower, which was cancelled after iFixit's analysis argued its overlapping multi-coil design worked in the lab but likely couldn't comply with FCC emission rules.
Since then Apple has rebuilt incrementally around magnets rather than free-position coils — most recently the reported magnetically attached battery pack for iPhone 12 — and Gurman's new reporting says the original ambitions never died: a multi-device charger, short- and long-distance chargers, and reverse wireless charging are all still in development.
First-order effects
- If reverse wireless charging ships, the iPhone itself becomes the charger for Apple's smaller devices — AirPods and Apple Watch could top up off the back of the handset instead of separate charging hardware.
- A revived multi-device charger puts Apple back in direct competition with the third-party MagSafe-compatible pads that filled the gap after AirPower's cancellation.
Second-order effects
- The iFixit theory that FCC emission rules killed AirPower means any successor must clear the same regulatory bar first — making certification, not coil engineering, the likely gate on Apple's announcement timing.
- Accessory makers who built businesses on single-device MagSafe pucks face margin pressure from both directions: Apple's own multi-device mat above them, and reverse charging making their products redundant for top-ups.
Third-order effects
- The through-line from 2016 to today suggests Apple treats charging as an ecosystem lock-in layer it will iterate on for years until it works — meaning eventual shipping products would deepen the closed Apple-accessory loop rather than converge on generic standards.
- If long-distance charging ever clears regulatory scrutiny, it would validate a category every phone maker has chased but none has shipped — though the FCC-compliance question that reportedly sank AirPower remains unresolved evidence-wise.
The trend: Apple is running a decade-long, regulator-constrained campaign to eliminate cables across its device lineup, rebuilding failed ambitions piece by piece through the MagSafe era.