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iOS 14.2 Suggests Apple Won't Include EarPods in the Box With iPhone 12
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Alright, to bring things more into perspective.
Do you guys think it's because of the 5G modem from Qualcomm? Qualcomm literally have a near monopoly right now, to the point they can force Android OEMs wanting the SD865 to also buy the 5G modem. Having that leverage means Qualcomm can charge pretty penny, especially to Apple who lost their alternative (intel). We see this with the prices of Android flagships also creeping up, and sometimes making them more expensive than even iPhones. I wonder this cost pressure is also pushing Apple to cut corners without any price reduction.
I'm hoping Apple would at least offer a little bone. We are seeing those mini Airpower charging pads around. That's thin enough to still fit into the slimmer boxes, so I wonder if Apple would bundle that with the iPhone 12s.
Do you guys think it's because of the 5G modem from Qualcomm? Qualcomm literally have a near monopoly right now, to the point they can force Android OEMs wanting the SD865 to also buy the 5G modem. Having that leverage means Qualcomm can charge pretty penny, especially to Apple who lost their alternative (intel). We see this with the prices of Android flagships also creeping up, and sometimes making them more expensive than even iPhones. I wonder this cost pressure is also pushing Apple to cut corners without any price reduction.
I'm hoping Apple would at least offer a little bone. We are seeing those mini Airpower charging pads around. That's thin enough to still fit into the slimmer boxes, so I wonder if Apple would bundle that with the iPhone 12s.
Most folks have a USB charger. Most folks have earphones. No need to get a new bundled pair every year.
The iPhone year by year often uses the same casing (for 3 years in a row), the same screen. Why not bring that into Apple and just change the mainboard? Might as well go all-in...
I doubt that most people have a USB-C charger or a lightning earbuds.
Or does this mean Apple is admitting that they are only selling iPhones to only existing users, thus not expanding to new users? That won't bode well with shareholders.
I hear the sound of Apple fans rushing into this threat to defend the indefensible.
Kind of....remember the market is already saturated...so a lot of users that will buy the iphone 12, already are Apple users...fewer and fewer are new customers . And if you are new, you can pay for what charger you want the 5W , 12W 18W or the upcoming 20W
Exactly.
Look at all the companies selling 3rd-party chargers... Anker, Aukey, RavPower, etc. And these companies popped up in a time when you did get a charger in a box. Yet people still bought tons of these chargers because they might want better chargers with more options (multiple ports, wireless charging, etc)
Hell... you can buy chargers at every gas station and drug store if you need to.
But I can already hear people saying "I just paid $1,000 for an iPhone and they can't give me a charger?!?!?"
I dunno... this whole topic seems overblown. People are gonna piss and moan about Apple (and possibly others) not including chargers and/or headphones in the box. But life goes on.
At the end of the day... people seem to have no problem buying 3rd-party accessories.
You're right... I'd rather buy exactly what I want.
Personally... I already have great chargers at my desk, by my bed, in my car, etc. I don't want the e-waste in the box.
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They have their advantages, yeah. Dependability for one. The reason why you see so many talking heads on TV (covid-style 'chiming in from home' type TV, that is) with wired EarPods instead of BT alternatives isn't that they all didn't get the memo, but the fact that wireless is prone to causing glitches, dropouts and misc embarrassing moments you don't need on live TV.
Then there's the sound quality of the mic. If you care anything about how you sound on the other end, your old flimsy EarPods make for a veritable hifi extravaganza compared to your AirPods Pro which sound like 78rpm shellac records just like all other BT earbuds/headphones. I did a voice memo test w/ all my BT devices - AirPods Pro, AirPods 1, beats x, beats Solo3, PowerBeats2, PowerBeats Pro, Jabra 65t Elite - the only alternative that didn't totally suck (but still sucked enough to suck) was beats x, mostly thanks to the position of the mic. The Jabras were the worst: Jabra brags about their 4 mics for maximum wind protection - what they don't tell you is that the mics are so busy picking up and boosting room reflections instead of your direct voice, that they're guaranteed to make the person at the other end ask why you're talking through a concrete drainage pipe.
This will be a problem if the user buy a cheap 3rd party power adapter and the phone explode.
If so many companies will continue selling chargers, then Apple's potential reasoning for. saving the environment is quite dishonest. They are simply shifting the carbon footprint to other companies, who are less likely to be responsible in their manufacturing/recycling policies.
Are those chargers in gas station actually safe? People usually blame users for not using the included chargers, and now you are telling people to grab those cheap timebombs?
Apple used to pride themselves for giving the best out of the box experience. If this rumor is true, then a new user cannot even charge his/her $1000 iPhone out of the box. Is that really the user experience Apple want to have for their products?
Now if Apple just be honest and maybe say "Hey, guess what, those Qualcomm 5G modems cost a lot of money, and we don't want to jack up our prices too much. So bear with us for not including these things," then maybe that might sound better. Or maybe say "Guess what, most of our customers already own iPhones, so we save them the clutter by excluding these extra stuff." That would actually sound more genuine. But the environment? Hmmm...
Apple will simply claim that the user should have bought and used their official chargers. I mean exploding iPhones, although rare, is not new.
This only applies for the first time you buy power supply. When you change the phone in 1/2/3 years - you will keep using the same power supply. And so on, and so on. This is thinking ahead of time and little companies and people are aware of it...
Every year? Not everyone has to have the newest, shiniest toy every 12 months, especially if we continue to hear cries of outrageous waste and/or saving the planet by Apple-fans.
It’s absolutely infuriating that Apple pretends they’re saving the planet on
Rumors have suggested that Apple's iPhone 12 models will not include power adapters or EarPods in the box, and a minor code tweak in iOS 14.2 seemingly confirms Apple's plan to sell the new devices without EarPods.
In iOS 14 and earlier versions of iOS, there's a mention of reducing exposure to RF energy by using the "supplied headphones," which is the same wording that Apple has used for years now.
In iOS 14.2, this wording has been tweaked to say just "headphones," removing the "supplied" part of this statement. The full code reads as follows:All prior mentions of headphones have included "supplied," and the deliberate elimination of the word in the new code strongly suggests Apple has no plans to "supply" headphones with the upcoming iPhone 12 models.
The mention of "supplied headphones" in iOS 14 is on the top, and the new wording without the word "supplied" is on the bottom
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in May that the iPhone 12 models will not come with EarPods in the box, with Apple instead planning to introduce some kind of AirPods promotion to encourage iPhone buyers to purchase AirPods as well.
There have also been rumors that Apple is eliminating the power adapter from the iPhone 12 box, which means customers will get an iPhone 12 and a USB-C to Lightning cable with nothing else.
The removal of the power adapter was all but confirmed when Apple released the Apple Watch Series 6 models without a power adapter, but until now, we've heard little else about the potential removal of the EarPods.
Apple has long offered EarPods with new iPhone models to give customers a way to listen to music, make calls, and more, but Apple has been aiming to transition to Bluetooth-only headphones since the launch of the AirPods and the removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone lineup.
Current iPhone 11 and 11 Pro models ship with EarPods that have a Lightning connector to plug into the Lightning port, but it appears the iPhone 11 devices will be the last to come with headphones in the box.
Apple is said to be removing the power adapter and the EarPods from the iPhone 12 box in order to cut costs, as the 5G chips in the new devices are expensive. The change will also allow Apple to slim down the size of the iPhone box, reducing packaging and environmental waste.
Steve Moser contributed to this report.
Article Link: iOS 14.2 Suggests Apple Won't Include EarPods in the Box With iPhone 12
I have no issue with Apple taking things out of the box, if they at the same time reduce the cost to match this. I have never worn any of the earphones that have been included in all of my iPhones. I end up giving them to my kids when they wear their own out. So I can hardly get angry with them if they decide to remove them.
Well like I said... the 3rd-party charger market is huge... even though chargers were included in the box up until now.
And if those 3rd party-party chargers will continue to be sold... with multiple ports, various wattage, wireless, etc... I'd rather Apple leave their single port charger out of the box.
No... I don't suggest people use cheap gas station chargers.
It was just an example to show how easy it is to get a charger if you don't have one. It's not like finding Bigfoot... chargers are actually pretty easy to find.
I can see that point.
On the other hand... how many people buying an iPhone next month have ZERO chargers currently in their possession? It's probably a very low number. It's 2020... and USB has been a thing for, like, a while...
So that means the overwhelming majority of people buying an iPhone do have some sort of charger already... or multiple chargers. Therefore it makes sense not to include extra e-waste in the box.
You can't ignore the environmental concerns.
There are 1.5 billion smartphones sold every year... and that means somewhere near 1.5 billion chargers and headphones are pushed out into the world... every year.
That's absolutely ridiculous.
Apple might only sell 200 million iPhones a year... but that means 200 million fewer chargers and headphones ending up in drawers and eventually landfills.
I obviously applaud them for this... but I can understand the other side.
I don’t personally use the earbuds that come in the box and I haven’t for many years (since before AirPods). Removing both the charger and the earbuds is just penny pinching in my opinion! if Apple offset that by reducing the price of the iPhone 12, maybe giving a discount off Airpods then fair enough. I guess we will see soon enough.
That would be true if everyone actually ordered a charger and/or headphones. Personally, I have just left the charger and the buds unused in the iPhone box every single year for at least a decade since I prefer to use other chargers and headphones. My wife has done the same, and I can't imagine it is uncommon.
My last trip to the recycling facility included probably 20 5W USB-A chargers supplied with other electronics. (I am trying to rid my life of anything that is not USB-C, and typically do not want to have any chargers that are not at least 12W.)
A simple solution would be a coupon in the box that lets you pick up a charger or earbuds from an Apple Store if you so wish. (Or even better, charge $35 for the combo package, and lower the price of the iPhone.)