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When Apple sells 200 million iPhones every year... that's 200 million pairs of EarPods that they would need to include in every box.

And I bet most of those EarPods never get used or even taken out of the box. That's what Apple is trying to prevent.

If they don't need to manufacture 200 million pairs of EarPods every year... those factories could possibly be used to make something else that people do want. Who knows.

As for removing items but keeping the price the same... we simply don't know Apple's costs for components.

Maybe the $1 or $2 reduction from removing the EarPods from the box is offset by a $1 or $2 increase in cost of some other component.

Who knows. I honestly don't care.

I've already spent more time typing this comment than I ever spent worrying about the included EarPods.

Now excuse me... I've got to organize my drawer of dozens of MicroUSB cables that came with every little gadget I've ever purchased...

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Exactly, I never ever took the charger, cable, earbuds out of the box. The box just goes on the shelf waiting till I upgrade to the next new version, when I put the phone back in the box and hand it off to someone else.
 
I don’t know a modern building that doesn’t provide easy walkable access to the roof. (Though, many are secured by locks… nothing I know about, of course, just from what a friend told me). :)
Our office buildings have a service elevator that goes to the roof and then a "materials lift" that goes to the of the cooling tower.....I know because I have to go up there at times to re aim the satellite dishes after the wind tweaks them.
 
Always thought, though didn’t expect, they should have reduced the price of iPhone when they both removed EarPods and reduced package materials.

I support efforts towards protecting - or at least being as conscientious and smart as possible with regard to our precious environmental resources. And I can see why “environmental concerns” made for an easy positioning for Apple. But it does make me wonder what the offset of those that have, or will, turn around and buy EarPods or AirPods. I mean, there’s production of those devices, packaging, shipping and other aspects that impact the environment.

At the end of the day, I do suspect it does mean there are far less EarPods in the world - which is likely a good thing, as that is eventual waste. It’s all just tricky math.
 
What ? should do is give every AirPods Max customer a free "Lightning to 3.5mm" cord + adapter for iPhone so users can listen to lossless and Hi-res lossless until next gen AirPods Max 2 appears. This should be in the AirPods Max ?.
 
It might be kind of cool if they left them out of the box, then asked if you wanted them. If you say yes, they hand you a set. For me, they are just a bit more clutter I don't want. It saves me the effort of finding them a home.
This here. Ear buds, charger.... should be optional. I actually keep waiting for an EU lawsuit that required Apple to fork one over upon request. Seems like something they would do.
 
I honestly don’t miss it but I am still a little bit conflicted regarding power bricks. I think Apple should at least let you have the option getting one for free at the time of purchase.
 
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The consumer always loses, paying more for less and people pay it. Then end up paying more for "better" equipment, it's a vicious cycle.
 
It was a dumb move to change the lightning cable from USB-A to USB-C without including a USB-C charging brick.

I just got my parents new iPhones to replace their 8’s and they still use their old lightning cables and chargers because they don‘t have any USB-C charging bricks.
Apple should absolutely not include a USB-C charging brick - for every person who needs it, there will be others who don't, and it'll go to waste - when they're making hundreds of millions of iPhones a year (over half a million a day, every day), it really adds up. Your parents can still use their existing lightning cables and chargers. What Apple should do, is point out, at checkout time, what is needed to charge the iPhone, and offer to sell you a USB-C charging brick (to go along with the included cable), possibly at a discount (I think the discount would be a nice gesture, but it's Apple's call), in case you don't already have a suitable charging solution.
 
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Europeans should be super pleased with the reduced e-waste. They've had their government pushing for similar progress for ages now.
Oh I am. I couldn't care less about that $29 bundled piece of cr@p I'd never use in my life (or bother selling it).

And yeah, some might say it's "just" a pair of earbuds, yeah. To those I can only quote this:

"It's just one plastic bottle" - said 8 billion people

The issue is always with the numbers. You gotta be able to see beyond your own personal waste. Little things add up. If one third of iPhone customers won't use those bundled earbuds, that's already 70 million earbuds saved from going to waste completely unnecessarily. Annually. I think it's a pretty clear concept to grasp.

So yeah, if you can't live without those "awesome" earpods, by all means, feel free to purchase it separately. Every year, if you wish. The rest of us are doing just fine without it.

And those who complain about no price reduction, it's time to familiarize yourself with this thing called inflation. It's not going to go away, so you better get used to it. Would you really pay $29 more for your iPhone just to keep that cr@p bundled? Really? Is it really that important to you? Is it really the earbuds of choice for ya? That you absolutely need to renew with every iPhone purchase? Come on.

I think, to the complainers, it's much more of a "principle" thing. They had something and now they took it away. But it was never "free", obviously. But it's not gonna hurt. Grow up, be reasonable about it.
 
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Apple should absolutely not include a USB-C charging brick - for every person who needs it, there will be others who don't, and it'll go to waste - when they're making hundreds of millions of iPhones a year (over half a million a day, every day), it really adds up. Your parents can still use their existing lightning cables and chargers. What Apple should do, is point out, at checkout time, what is needed to charge the iPhone, and offer to sell you a USB-C charging brick (to go along with the included cable), possibly at a discount (I think the discount would be a nice gesture, but it's Apple's call), in case you don't already have a suitable charging solution.
How is packaging an unused lightning cable that will never get used better than a brick that will never get used?
 
When Apple sells 200 million iPhones every year... that's 200 million pairs of EarPods that they would need to include in every box.

And I bet most of those EarPods never get used or even taken out of the box. That's what Apple is trying to prevent.

If they don't need to manufacture 200 million pairs of EarPods every year... those factories could possibly be used to make something else that people do want. Who knows.

As for removing items but keeping the price the same... we simply don't know Apple's costs for components.

Maybe the $1 or $2 reduction from removing the EarPods from the box is offset by a $1 or $2 increase in cost of some other component.

Who knows. I honestly don't care.

I've already spent more time typing this comment than I ever spent worrying about the included EarPods.

Now excuse me... I've got to organize my drawer of dozens of MicroUSB cables that came with every little gadget I've ever purchased...

🤣
100%. I never used the included headphones except maybe 10 years ago. It's the same with all the included lightning cables that come with my AirPods, Magic Keyboard, etc. Once you have a few cables of each types, you don't need more, it's just waste. And the argument on the price is laughable, because as you said we don't know Apple's costs for components, but even if apple gave us a 20$ discount on their iPhones, the difference on the total of the device would still be insignificant. It's like people would be lining up in Apple stores if the iPhone was 20$ cheaper.
 
I’m happy to see European countries starting to walk back from some of the baseless FUD about Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular radios causing brain cancer and stuff
They’re not spreading FUD about anything in particular, instead they require companies prove that their products are safe, rather than saying “do what you like until we prove it isn’t safe, BTW we won’t investigate anything ourselves and will believe experts that work for you”.

Surely you’ve seen enough examples of why that’s needed, such as leaded petrol, asbestos, tobacco, neocotinoids, etc.
 
All done in the name of the environment yet meanwhile Apple is pushing harder than ever silly iPhone “wireless” charging adapters that still need a physical connection to your phone but are extremely power inefficient and thus terrible for the environment. But they can profit on the adapter so why not?
 
Good riddance. I haven't used the EarPods in the last three generations of iPhones I've bought; they're all just sitting in their boxes untouched. If I'm in a situation where I have to use the Lightning connector, I'd rather use it to charge the phone and use my AirPods. I also can't remember the last time I've seen anyone else in public using EarPods.
 
All done in the name of the environment yet meanwhile Apple is pushing harder than ever silly iPhone “wireless” charging adapters that still need a physical connection to your phone but are extremely power inefficient and thus terrible for the environment. But they can profit on the adapter so why not?
So we should reduce consumer choice to nothing? Or is it better to have hundreds of millions cables as e_waste?

Tesla is killing the environment with its mining of lithium in the guise of being of green.
 
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