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New MacBook Pro Does Not Include a Charger in the Box in Europe
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No no I'm glad you posted it. I've posted it 5 times so far cause people somehow keep ignoring it!
With hundreds of responses to this thread it’s quite entertaining.
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 chip does not include a charger in the box in European countries, including the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and others, according to Apple's online store.
In the U.S. and all other countries outside of Europe, the new MacBook Pro comes with Apple's 70W USB-C Power Adapter, but European customers miss out.
Apple has gradually stopped including chargers with many products over the years — a decision it has attributed to its environmental goals.
It also reveals who the Apple Apologists are.
Some things never change.
Why should Apple do any of these things you ask them to? Why shouldn't they be free to decide pricing for their own products on their own store as they like? The charger no longer being included is merely a price increase for the UK market. Price increases happen all the time.
The UK economy has hit rock bottom, have you seen what's going on across the pond? Prices have risen sharply across the board yet Apple are the bad guys here? What exactly is the apology you speak of?
Fewer SKUs and easier supply chain?
Hard to say. Probably in reaction to economic and market conditions in he UK.
No, the EU didn't ban Apple from including a charger with the M5 MacBook Pro
There was quite a lot of discussion yesterday – and not a little confusion – when it was revealed that...9to5mac.com
However, they did mandate selling one without a charger and Apple decided against also selling one with a charger.
From what you keep quoting:
Second, it does not ban companies from supplying a charger at no additional cost. It merely says consumers must be offered the choice.
It would obviously be equally wasteful to make two versions of MacBook Pro packaging in Europe – one with a charger, the other without. For that reason, it makes absolute sense that Apple doesn’t include the charging brick in the box.
As has been pointed out here repeatedly, Apple must offer it without a charger but can offer the option of one, and Apple has decided to only ofer it without one with the option of buying it separately or as part of some upgrade options.
I'm not sure what your point is; Apple must, per EU directive, offer it without a charger; that has nothing to do with banning them from also selling one with it, only that they may not sell only ones with chargers. Apple has chosen to charge for the charger if you want it. In the case of the base model, you need to buy it separately by adding it later to your cart.
They already have a different SKU for the UK keyboard layout.
If I were Apple, I would put the power supply in the box, charge one price, and ask the buyer if he wants the power supply at the time of purchase. If the answer were "no," then I would have the salesman remove the power supply from the box before completing the sale. Problem solved and, presumably, while meeting all regulations.
Or I would make the power-supply-less model cost $999,999 and special-order.
Or I would sell the computer without a wi-fi card to avoid it being classified as a radio. (I guess that the wi-fi card could be included in the box for the user to install and make the device into a radio.)
And none of this actually does as much for the environment as making laptops with batteries and storage devices that are easily user-replaceable. These are consumable items that will both eventually fail. Making them easily replaceable will extend the life of the device. But we all know that this is about money and not saving the planet.
Having charger /non-charger models doubles the SKUs. Then again, I have no idea if that is why Apple did it.
No Apple has a used charger to dispose of; plus it deprives teh user of teh unboxing experience. Easier to sell it separately unless special order.
Right. That would be a smart move to piss off consumers and regulators.
Yeah you are right,Too bad every other laptop manufacturer in the existence breaks EU regulations...
Of course it's not another cash grab by Apple, they sell laptops 60 Euro cheaper, right?
Maybe Apple just doesn't like European, right?
I do enjoy when Apple does things like this, it is a good litmus test. Shows who would defend anything they do, even indefensible things.
Why is complying with EU law indefensible? The usual argument is "Apple must comply with EU law or leave..."
As linked to earlier, the EU haven’t forced this decision…
No, the EU didn't ban Apple from including a charger with the M5 MacBook Pro
There was quite a lot of discussion yesterday – and not a little confusion – when it was revealed that...
9to5mac.com
The EU absolutely are forcing manufacturers to offer products without a charger in the box.As linked to earlier, the EU haven’t forced this decision…
No, the EU didn't ban Apple from including a charger with the M5 MacBook Pro
There was quite a lot of discussion yesterday – and not a little confusion – when it was revealed that...
What the EU aren’t doing is forcing manufacturers to only offer products without a charger in the box. That decision is up to the individual manufacturer.
Has anyone mentioned already that if you get the 16GB version YOU CAN'T select a charger - the only option is NO CHARGER, as if they wanted to punish you even more for going for the cheapest option. 🤪
If you BTO, you can get a box with a charger in it. If it is a stock SKU, you can add a charger to the order (out of box) for the same cost on the next screen. Arguably, they should have not had a BTO option with the charger in-box in Europe.
As linked to earlier, the EU haven’t forced this decision…
No, the EU didn't ban Apple from including a charger with the M5 MacBook Pro
There was quite a lot of discussion yesterday – and not a little confusion – when it was revealed that...
The EU didn’t expressly say that Apple has to remove the charger, but at the scale they operate, I would probably have done the same thing in Apple’s shoes.
There are no individual solutions to societal problems. If the problem is that too much e-waste is being generated from including chargers with every laptop, then the best, most straightforward solution is to remove them from the box. Given the choice, I honestly do not see too many people opt out of the charger. Like people said, it’s a pretty nice 70w brick, and who is going to say no to free stuff?
That’s how you force change - either by nudging users towards the choice you want them to make, or by removing that choice altogether. The downside is that it will not he beneficial to the majority of users, which is precisely why said decision cannot be left up to the individual.
If I were Apple, I wouldn’t want to be keeping 2 versions of every product in store (one with charger, one without), and I don’t think I want my employees to be opening up boxes to remove chargers if customers opt out (what then am I supposed to do with these excess chargers? They are already manufactured!). It’s just going to slow down the overall sales process overall.
Let’s see how many other companies end up adopting Apple’s stance on this matter ultimately. If and when it comes to my country, I won’t complain.
People defending Apple for removing a needed part from a product....now I can finally understand the isheep thingy.
Actually, it did and the very article macbookj0e keeps quoting expressly says that, despite the claims to the contrary:
Second, it does not ban companies from supplying a charger at no additional cost. It merely says consumers must be offered the choice.
Apple had no choice but to offer a SKU with no charger since the EU specifically required that in the law set to go into effect, so TFA says exactly opposite what many others are claiming, that somehow this was Apple's idea to remove the charger as part of some grand conspiracy to increase margins.
Apple simply chose not to offer such a SKU with an included charger, along with no charger, except in BYO options and complied with the requirement of offering charger less devices, albeit not for free.
Apple did drop the price in the EU by more than the cost of a charger and you can still order one even if it is not part of the box, so I think the whole thing much ado about nothing.
They know that virtually everyone would choose to include. You can add one (at an expensive expense. £59 & £79 for the 70w & 96w respectively) but only if you upgrade something like their ram or hard drive for example and not with the basic model.
You can add one even if you select the base model, just not within the device configurator screen. There’s no restriction on adding a charger to any device order. Notice my basket contains 1 item, which is an M5 base model MBP. I can still add a charger to the order.
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Yes agree and if you’re in the EU the decreased price negates the lack of charger, however my issue is in the UK the Mac’s price is the same so by adding a charger there’s effectively a price increase.
It is what it is and Apple are free to do what they want but I’m personally not happy about it.
This will just be the new normal. The EU price decrease almost certainly won’t be related to the charger but changes in the currency as evidenced by the UK price having not changed when the charger was removed from the box. Likewise, I don’t believe any other product has gone down in price when the charger was removed from the box.
The cost of the charger to Apple is tiny so even if they did reduce the price it wouldn’t be anywhere near the retail price of the charger - maybe £5-£10 at the most.