EU Didn't Stop Apple From Including Charger With M5 MacBook Pro

[SpotOnT]

SIM card? USB-C to HDMI cable? Microsoft Office? Cleaning cloth? Case? 4-way mains strip?
Does the Mac Mini come with everything you need to use it? Keyboard? Mouse? Monitor?

"What you need to use it" is completely personal and arbitrary - and can change with time.

In the past, you needed the charger because it was a unique, proprietary device with a proprietary connector, and using anything else was - at best - a case of "do you feel lucky". Now, any non-fake USB-C charger will charge your MacBook (if only slowly) and there's a wide choice of chargers - even from Apple - that can do the job while offering other features.

Apple already offered a choice of 2 chargers with the MacBook Pro, and all the EU required them to do was to add "no charger" to that list. Which they have done for the new MBP. The only relevant debate is whether Apple have passed on any resulting savings to the customer (rather than use the EU as scapegoat for a stealth price rise), or whether they should have shown a bit more customer respect by offering a free or discounted charger as an option.


Why tires?

OK, you need the stock tires if you want to drive it to your preferred tyre dealer to get better ones - but that's a false equivalence because you don't need to have a laptop charger in order to buy a better laptop charger.

Why not spare wheel, car stereo, heated windscreen, heated seats etc. - which are usually extras - or that anti-corrosion treatment that they always try and push on you? Why not insurance, car tax/license plates (depending on country) - last time I bought a car I actually had to prove I had it taxed and insured before the dealer would hand me the keys.

My PowerBook G4 came with a cleaning cloth, charger, various dongles for video output, etc. It felt like a complete package. I wasn’t having to buy additional accessories to turn on and use device unless I wanted to.

If you prefer to buy every part yourself that is fine - to each their own.

And others prefer to build their own computers from scratch. Again, to each their own.

 

[Innovati0n]

SIM card? USB-C to HDMI cable? Microsoft Office? Cleaning cloth? Case? 4-way mains strip?
Does the Mac Mini come with everything you need to use it? Keyboard? Mouse? Monitor?

"What you need to use it" is completely personal and arbitrary - and can change with time.

Straw man argument.

Having a charger with the laptop is not the same as those things you listed. You likely know that, but couldn't just admit defeat so you went ahead with a bunch of random ideas.

 

[okkibs]

You missed the point where gift cards and giveaways can actually make money as 'loss leaders'.

Outside of the yearly education-only promotion Apple does not do any giveaways to my knowledge. If you want an Apple gift card you'll have to buy one. Certainly at full price if you buy it through Apple.

You also missed the point that retail prices for things like Macs just aren't calculated that way.

We do not know the specifics of how Apple sets their prices. Apple communicates very clearly to its customers that they think their most barebones charger is worth more than 50 bucks and if it's included in your purchase then one way or another you probably paid the full price for that charger. Apple aren't doing starter sets or "kits" or discounts and their business model clearly works very well that way.

its hard to see how you could stop resellers throwing in free chargers if that gives them an edge over the competition

People buy where it's convenient and plug in USB-C cables into a charger where the cable fits with no regards to charge protocols or wattage or brand. Nobody is going to pay extra attention to the retailer who throws in a charger, instead people care how far they have to drive or if they can get a next day delivery and where they might have a customer/rewards card for a lower price. Or they might go to a place where they can try out the device in person first.

Except they haven't increased prices of Macs in the UK. Everything is still the same price as it was, except the £1600 14" MBP no longer includes a £60 (retail) charger.

Following Apple's product launches and the pricing year by year it becomes clear why that is: Apple mostly updates pricing when they update the product. The reason they haven't increased Mac prices in the UK is that all of them are still the older M4 versions. Their prices won't be changed until they are updated with M5.

A side effect of this strategy is that Apple charges MSRP until a successor is announced and that has previously resulted in extremely overpriced old Macs like the very last Intel Mac Pro still being sold through Apple at MSRP despite Macs with the M1 chip already being sold.

Yet all this strange pricing is par for the course that's Apple. You compare to gardening tools and various computer components but Apple doesn't do business this way. They don't need to offer incentives because there's no other laptop like a Macbook. If you want a Mac you have no other choice but to buy an Apple Mac.

 

[theluggage]

Having a charger with the laptop is not the same as those things you listed.

How?

Try using a phone without a SIM card (or 'eSIM'). Try using a desktop without a keyboard or display cable. Try doing anything useful without the software you need. Plenty of products in this world come without everything you need to make use of them in the box as standard. What you need depends on what you already have, or what you wish to source elsewhere.

If you want to play name-the-fallacy try "Appeal to tradition" - "we should get a charger in the box with a laptop because we always used to get a charger in the box" while ignoring the fact that they were normally proprietary and tied to the specific product, whereas we now have a universal standard.

 

[theluggage]

Outside of the yearly education-only promotion Apple does not do any giveaways to my knowledge.

So, Apple don't do giveaways... apart from when they do giveaways.
Free AppleTV+ subscriptions with virtually everything, when they launched the service, springs to mind.
They did half-price USB-C accessories for some months after launcing the 2016 USB-C-only Macbook (but only after user complaints about the cost of replacing all their cables and adapters).

Anyway, I didn't say that they did, just that they could. Other companies do - apparently without crashing and burning.

We do not know the specifics of how Apple sets their prices.

No, but it's very clearly not "marginal cost + % mark-up" when the price points stay fixed for years. They clearly decide the price and then decide what they want to give you for that price.

Apple aren't doing starter sets or "kits" or discounts and their business model clearly works very well that way.

...but the whole point of this thread is that that's Apple's choice of business model - not the EU's decision. There were other ways they could have complied with the requirement to offer a charger-free option, rather than take the charger away for everybody.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Samsung Asus Dell and alike still include chargers or options to buy one (i live in Holland). So it at feels like cheap imitation of trying to make more money

Apple includes the option to buy a charger too. The fact is that the EU is requiring this change by the end of April. Other manufacturers might handle it differently than Apple is, but the situation with laptops and chargers is changing because of EU laws.

 

[Innovati0n]

Apple includes the option to buy a charger too. The fact is that the EU is requiring this change by the end of April. Other manufacturers might handle it differently than Apple is, but the situation with laptops and chargers is changing because of EU laws.

Ironic you're replying in the thread with the article that showed this is false. The misinformation continues to spread even in comment sections of articles that disputed the misinformation.

 

[Abazigal]

Ironic you're replying in the thread with the article that showed this is false. The misinformation continues to spread even in comment sections of articles that disputed the misinformation.

I don't see it as misinformation.

It is true that upcoming EU legislation does not prohibit Apple from finding some way to still include a charger with their laptops while also removing it for customers who express that they don't need one. It is also likely true that trying to manage this at scale for Apple would have proven to be inconvenient (you have to maintain 2 separate product lines), and it was simply easier for them to just remove all chargers from laptops sold in the region altogether.

It is also true that Apple appears to be managing this in a manner which is financially advantageous to themselves, yet at the same time, they continue to include a charger in other countries like Singapore.

What this tells me is that EU legislation appears fond of prescribing overly broad guidelines (even if they have a specific mode of implementation in mind) to tech companies to nudge them towards certain "idealised" behaviour which is often not to their financial benefit, then everyone acts all shocked when said companies opt to adhere to those rules in the most literal manner possible in a bid to minimise the costs of compliance.

It seems to be a recurring theme around here that because Apple makes so much money with their hardware, they are expected to simply subsidise the cost of everything else (from running the App Store for free, to giving free iCloud storage, to fragmenting their product lineup just to comply with a questionable rule).

I think many of us saw this move coming a mile away. I guess I am more surprised at the people "pretending" to be surprised, than I am surprised at the way Apple has chosen to respond here.