Blogger John Gruber tweeted on Friday that the long rumored wireless charging feature of the iPhone 8 might not be ready when the phone is released in the fall. The wireless charging has been one of the most highly anticipated rumored features of the phone but it is possible it will be released separately.
In the tweet, Gruber does not name his source:
“I’ve heard that inductive charging will (a) be sold separately, and (b) might be late, waiting for iOS 11.1 (a la Portrait mode last year).”
Who should we believe?
As with all the iPhones, the iPhone 8 is not short of rumors. Once again Apple is succeeding in keeping customers in the dark about exactly what the new phone will offer.
Apple’s history of secrecy stems from the very first iPhone that was referred to as Purple. Even inside Apple, only those working on it directly knew about the phone.
Could Gruber’s tweet just be yet another rumor?
Long range or inductive charging?
It was originally rumored that the iPhone 8 would include long range charging. However, this is still very new technology and it is likely Apple has many hurdles to cross before it could successfully implement this. It is now rumored that Apple is tackling inductive charging, a feature used by the company previously through the Apple Watch.
It is possible that the wireless charging facility could work with a range of already available wireless charging ports. However, it is equally possible that the feature will only work with Apple-designed products.