(Image Credits: Jonas Daehnert)
Honestly, I believe Apple has pulled up stunts like this in the past and is capable of doing this in the future as well.
Over the last week, multiple sites have reported that the next iPhone might not include the charger and earpods in the box and users need to purchase them separately.
According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will ship the upcoming iPhone 12 models without EarPods and a power adapter. Kuo says Apple will release a new 20W power adapter as an optional accessory. This collaborates the Barclays report from last week. pic.twitter.com/qX1UIjt1PW
— Apple Hub (@theapplehub) June 30, 2020
Is it bad? or good? Let's decode the possibilities.
Advantages:
1. Lower device costs:
Lots of people purchasing/upgrading newer iPhones already have their previous chargers and earphones. A study suggests that around 40% of the people don't even pull out the chargers and earphones from their boxes.
The current prices of:
This means if apple pulls out these things from the box, they can reduce the price of the iPhone by almost 80 USD (rounded off).
Yes, you heard it right. New iPhones might be cheaper. And for the new users, Apple might provide the option to include these items at an extra cost.
2. Environment friendly
For a couple of years, every time Apple unveils a new hardware product they always have a slide about how environmentally friendly their manufacturing process is.
You might ask, how not including charger and earpods in the box helps the environment. Well, it does.
"More than one million tons of external power supplies are manufactured every year."
Since we get chargers and earphones with every device, technically it's a waste for us. It makes perfect sense if we can choose whether we want a charger or not at the time of purchase.
According to Yang napkin's maths for how many little warts are sold each year and how much waste we generate:
"We estimate about 300,000 tons of e-waste just from these in-box chargers"
Another thing is if they don't include charger and earpods in the box, they can minimize the size of the box which can reduce shipping costs and can save material that is used to build the boxes.
3. Smooth transition to the next-gen iPhone
We all know that probably the next to the next iPhone will not have any ports at all. Apple's planning for a portless iPhone, there have been rumors around it for a long time.
If that's true this might be Apple's way of letting the users familiarize themselves with accessory-less boxes.
Disadvantages:
If Apple is going to reduce costs and not include accessories, that makes perfect sense. But, we all know that Apple is introducing 5G with the iPhone 12 and if they are not including accessories to minimize the increased cost because of 5G, users might need to spend a few extra bucks out of their pocket to get new chargers and earpods.
Are there other ways of doing this?
Ah, Yes. If Apple really wanted to decrease cost and make it environmentally friendly they would have introduced a USB C type charging to iPhones. But Since Apple always preferred to have a closed ecosystem they do everything their own way.
Is Anyone else doing it in the Industry?
Yes, This technique has been in the industry for a long time. The well-known DSLR ships with no lenses and we all know that we cannot use DSLR's without lenses. The first time users need to purchase the basic lenses and users who upgrade their DSLR's they already have the lenses and don't need to purchase one.
Looks like Apple is going to follow the same strategy and it'll be worth it only if they reduce the prices.
Ending Note - As a user, if it reduces the price for me to upgrade for a new iPhone, I'll be happy with the decision and it sounds like a perfect step if they are planning for a complete wireless iPhone down the line.
Let me know what do you think in the comments section below.
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