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DigiTimes: Apple Considering Bundling AirPods With 2020 iPhones
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That's a ridiculous idea. Frankly, they should be shipping the phone with no accessories at all. No EarPods, no charger, and no charging cable. They could ship it in a really thin box saving on shipping. I've had iPhones for a decade now and I have plenty of ways to charge it.
While I'm at it, ship the watches without straps. I change my watch more often than I change my strap.
While I'm at it, ship the watches without straps. I change my watch more often than I change my strap.
Not quite. The charging cable is a necessity, you have to have it if the phone arrives where the battery is fully depleted, and/or to boot load the phone it does does not power on through the power button. Not everyone has spare lighting cables readily available, especially if it’s their first iPhone.
Nintendo did this with the new 3ds line. It had a lot of backlash (online anyway) but seemed to still do pretty well.
I think it's reasonable, though oem 3ds chargers are $10 full retail, cheaper if you buy on sale.
I think if you make it very clear that you're making the change, it's ok to do. Unfortunately, Nintendo didn't drop the price any and I don't expect Apple would either, should they go this route.
Valid points. That’s the thing with Apple, they’re never very clear what move they’ll make, sometimes which may or may not require an explanation from them. I think the most advanced announcement they made was probably the removal of the 3.5 mm Jack, but it seems like it’s the smaller changes they have made in the past, like shortening the Apple Watch cable/or removing the charging brick from the sport model that they don’t mention.
I wasn't directing my comment at you, but now I notice your early comment in response to someone praising the idea:
It sounds like you don't want them to do this, and I wonder why you would mention devaluation of all things. Other people's comments here criticize the idea rather than DigiTimes itself, and I see some nervous "lol"s too. I don't think they're going to do it, since DigiTimes is so hit-and-miss and Apple still makes so much money from accessories.
that's nonsense!
Why would apple do that? They would loose money on probably the best selling accessory they have, that is in short supply basically from the launch.
Why even a customer would want it - I just got the Airpods pro, if I buy a new phone in 2020 I don't want to pay for new Airpods I do not need.
What would make sense is something like Watch studio, for example you can upgrade the lightning earpods with Airpods paying the difference, when you get a new phone.
Why would apple do that? They would loose money on probably the best selling accessory they have, that is in short supply basically from the launch.
Why even a customer would want it - I just got the Airpods pro, if I buy a new phone in 2020 I don't want to pay for new Airpods I do not need.
What would make sense is something like Watch studio, for example you can upgrade the lightning earpods with Airpods paying the difference, when you get a new phone.
Woot! And in the process they’ll simply introduce another 100 million pairs of batteries that need recycling down the road.
Not going to happen. Yes, Apple includes wired headphones with iPhone. But and the big but is that AirPods aren't any old $25 pair of wired hadphones. Airpods are the perfect combo of Desireable, not unreasonable to buy as an add-on (but not a necessary add-on) and work perfectly with the Apple eco-system.
To throw them in for free just totally goes against everything they've done in the past 10 years - they're a high profit item and Apple likes to make $$$.
Unless they drop them to sub $50, then it's not happening IMO.
To throw them in for free just totally goes against everything they've done in the past 10 years - they're a high profit item and Apple likes to make $$$.
Unless they drop them to sub $50, then it's not happening IMO.
Unless you're like me and lose or wash theme in pants pockets then you would get customers addicted to the product and consider buying a replacement when they otherwise would not have.
I'm both a consumer & a shareholder.
As a consumer, obviously, I want absolutely as much as I can get for free & the consequences for the company don’t even enter my mind.
As a shareholder, I recognize that it would obviously be beyond ignorant to take an expensive product (which people are currently literally lining up to pay for), make it free & shove it down the throats of those who do want it and those that don’t.
As has been mentioned here... the resale would immediately go to about $50 & the product would be incredibly devalued.
This is not to say I don’t want my free AirPods... merely explaining some very basic and obvious reasons why it would be a terrible idea for Apple & why I can’t imagine they’d do it.
Currently, AirPods are a sought after item... with a perceived value.
To change that mindshare instead to: “oh yeah, those are those crappy things they give away for free, or you can pick up anywhere for like 30% of the retail price”, would destroy the work Apple is doing to make this a hardware platform of their own.
