Come September, I plan on pre-ordering whatever the smaller iPhone Pro model winds up being, whether it’s the iPhone 12 Pro or some alternative. When I order that phone, I expect three things to come in the box: the phone itself, a set of wired EarPods, and a charging brick with a USB-C to Lighting cable.
Well, if a report from Ming-Chi Kuo is to be believed, I need to learn to expect just one of those things: the iPhone.
According to Kuo (via 9to5Mac), with this year’s lineup of iPhones, Apple will be dropping both the set of EarPods you get in the box along with the charger. Their reason? Apple just wants to make more money. If they don’t have to include the accessories in the box, it’ll save them cash up front and give them the opportunity to collect even more later when, y’know, you need to charge your phone and/or listen to music.
There’s no word on what iPhones would drop the accessories. However, Kuo did specify that Apple might go so far as to axe the 2020 iPhone SE’s charger and headphones.
Get rid of headphones? Sure. But a charger? Nah.
If there’s an upside to this news, it would be that e-waste will be greatly reduced. Everyone likely already has a phone charger and pair of headphones anyway. Why ship a phone with both in the box?
Getting rid of the headphones is probably inevitable. Apple’s making so much money with AirPods that it would be stupid not to capitalize on it by nearly forcing its millions of iPhone users to buy a pair. But getting rid of the charger? That’s idiocy at its finest. They just started shipping iPhones with fast chargers. Why take it away now? Also, what if you have to plug your phone in for something and your old and frayed-out cable no longer works? You have to go buy a new cable, right?
I dunno man. I kinda buy the whole “Apple’s getting rid of EarPods” thing, but not the charger debacle. I’ll believe it when I see it. Until then, I would bargain you’ll still get a charger in the box of your iPhone later this year.
