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.