Top 10 Most Discussed MacRumors Stories of 2019: AirPower Canceled, Apple Card Launches, and More

MacRumors published thousands of stories in 2019, as part of our continued coverage of the latest Apple news and rumors. Below, we look back at the top 10 most discussed stories of the year in our forums, with topics ranging from the AirPower mat being canceled to the launch of the Apple Card.

airpower apple card

  1. Apple Officially Cancels AirPower (1,948 comments): At its iPhone X event in 2017, Apple previewed a new wireless charging mat called AirPower that would have been able to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods simultaneously, regardless of each device's position on the mat. Apple failed to release the mat in 2018 as promised, however, leading to relentless rumors and speculation. In March 2019, Apple's hardware engineering chief Dan Riccio finally came out and said the AirPower was canceled due to the product's inability to meet its high standards.
  2. Apple Card Rolling Out Today to Limited Number of Customers (1,920 comments): After being previewed at its March 2019 event, Apple rolled out its all-new credit card to select users in the United States in the first week of August 2019, followed by a wider launch later in the month. Built into the Wallet app on an iPhone, the Apple Card features Apple Pay support, up to 3% daily cashback, color-coded spending summaries, zero fees beyond interest, and much more.
  3. Live 2019 iPhone Event Coverage: 'By Innovation Only' (1,855 comments): Live coverage of Apple's September 2019 event at Steve Jobs Theater, where the company unveiled the iPhone 11 lineup, Apple Watch Series 5 models, and 10.2-inch iPad.
  4. Live Apple Event Coverage: 'It's Show Time' (1,537 comments): Live coverage of Apple's March 2019 event at Steve Jobs Theater, where the company unveiled four new services: Apple News+, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and Apple Card.
  5. Live From WWDC 2019: Coverage of Apple's Keynote with iOS 13, macOS 10.15, and More (1,494 comments): Live coverage of Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference from the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. Apple announced iOS 13, iPadOS, macOS Catalina, tvOS 13, and watchOS 6, in addition to previewing its new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR.
  6. AirPods Pro Launching on October 30 for $249 (1,173 comments): With a press release, Apple introduced higher-ends AirPods Pro with several improvements over regular AirPods, including active noise cancellation, improved sound quality, and water resistance.
  7. Spotify on Apple's Response to App Store Dispute: 'Every Monopolist Will Suggest They Have Done Nothing Wrong' (1,094 comments): Last year, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in Europe over unfair App Store practices. Apple labeled the complaint as "misleading rhetoric" and argued that "Spotify wants all the benefits of a free app without being free." Spotify fired back, claiming that "every monopolist will suggest they have done nothing wrong."
  8. Apple to Release Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR on December 10 (1,037 comments): Over two years after confirming that it was working on a new Mac Pro, Apple finally announced that the new Mac Pro and companion Pro Display XDR would be available to order starting December 10, 2019. Watch our hands-on video!
  9. Intel Expecting Apple to Transition to Custom Arm-Based Chips Starting in 2020 (1,007 comments): Apple is planning to ditch Intel processors and transition to custom Arm-based chips starting in 2020, according to Bloomberg. Axios then cited multiple unnamed sources within Intel who said the rumor is true.
  10. Apple Reveals All-New Mac Pro With Up to 28-Core Processor and 1.5TB of RAM, Starting at $5,999 (989 comments): After years of anticipation, Apple previewed its new Mac Pro at WWDC 2019 with up to 28-core Intel Xeon processors, 1.5TB of RAM, and 8TB of SSD storage. Base pricing of $5,999 was announced, but it was not until months later that maxed-out pricing of over $50,000 was revealed.

MacRumors will celebrate its 20th anniversary next month, having been founded on February 24, 2000. We look forward to another year of sharing the latest Apple news and rumors and we thank all of our readers for their support.

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Top Rated Comments

JimmyBanks6 Avatar
70 months ago
Can you do an equivalent article for the 2010's
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe Rossignol Avatar
70 months ago

Can you do an equivalent article for the 2010's
Here is all-time: https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/macrumors-com-news-discussion.4/?order=reply_count&direction=desc
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
benshive Avatar
70 months ago
Even with the failed AirPower project I think that 2019 was a really good year for Apple :)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Analog Kid Avatar
70 months ago

This kind of statistic is heavily influenced by how many articles Macrumors publishes on a specific topic and how close time-wise these multiple articles are published. Other things like time of the day (and week) will also affect the results.
It seems like there was an article every week reminding us AirPower wasn‘t shipping yet but still nobody could restrain themselves from commenting about Apple not delivering a charging mat that they thought was too expensive and unnecessary...

The great AirPower whinge of ‘18/‘19 was truly something to behold.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JilzVT Avatar
70 months ago
The people have spoken - more tech stuff, less entertainment stuff!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
44267547 Avatar
70 months ago

AirPower wasn’t Apple’s finest hour.
That’s because Jim, it was only mentioned for a minute during the keynote. ?

Seriously though, what’s the big deal? Do you think Apple is the first company to cancel a product because they couldn’t successfully launch it due to XYZ reason(s)? It’s not like they had this marketed for quite some time, it was mentioned briefly during a keynote. Who cares that they didn’t release it, the fact that they owned up to it and didn’t release a product that potentially could pose problems, says more about the company itself. I mean, not to pick on Samsung, but they have a lengthy history of releasing products that have been flawed and/or half-baked <—which transcends into damaging the reputation.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)