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Despite mocking Apple for no longer including a charger with the iPhone, Samsung and Xiaomi are now expected to follow suit and remove the charging adapter from their upcoming smartphones.

samsung-charger-post.jpg


Alongside the announcement of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, Apple announced that it would no longer include the charging adapter with all new iPhones, citing environmental concerns. The move was publicly criticized by rival smartphone makers Samsung and Xiaomi.

The day after the announcement of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, Xiaomi posted a video promoting the Mi 10T Pro on social media showing the unboxing of a charger accompanied by the comment "Don't worry, we didn't leave anything out of the box."



Samsung similarly posted an image of a charger with the text "Included with your Galaxy," and the message:

Your #Galaxy does give you what you are looking for. From the most basic as a charger, to the best camera, battery, performance, memory and even 120Hz screen.

In spite of these social media posts clearly poking fun at Apple's decision, Samsung is now believed, based on regulatory filings, to be removing the charger from the Galaxy S21, which is set to be unveiled on January 14. This may now be more likely considering that Samsung has deleted its "the most basic as a charger" post from social media entirely, as spotted by HTTech.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has also now confirmed on Weibo that the company's upcoming Mi 11 phone will not come with a charger due to environmental concerns. Jun said that smartphone users already have many chargers, so including another with the Mi 11 would contribute to an unnecessary environmental burden:

Xiaomi Mi 11 is officially unveiled with brand new packaging, so light and thin.

Behind the thinness, we made an important decision: in response to the call of technology and environmental protection, Xiaomi 11 canceled the included charger.

Today everyone has a lot of idle chargers, which is both a burden to you and on the environment. We are well aware that this decision may not be understood or even be complained about. Is there a better solution between industry practice and environmental protection?

iPhones now ship without wired EarPods or a power adapter in the box, with only a Lightning to USB-C charging cable included. With these accessories removed, all new iPhones now ship in a thinner box. Apple touts the environmental benefits of no longer bundling these accessories, noting that the move reduces carbon emissions and avoids the mining and use of rare-earth elements.

With a major competitor no longer offering accessories like the power adapter and EarPods, Samsung and Xiaomi may now believe consumers are prepared to purchase accessories separately. Samsung and Xiaomi have been known to follow similar trends set by Apple in the past. For example, Samsung made fun of Apple for removing the headphone jack from the ‌iPhone‌ 7 in 2016 before mirroring the decision and releasing the 2018 Galaxy A8 without a headphone jack.

Article Link: Samsung and Xiaomi Plan to Ship Upcoming Smartphones Without Charger After Mocking Apple Over Same Move
 
Well at least they removed it and didn't stick to their PR message for being afraid of being called a hypocrite. Charger should be removed from all phones and people should buy it separately. Good on them for removing it despite the incoming bashing by the community.

No one needs to start a large charging brick collection because they upgrade often. No one.
 
Right on time, per normal.

Even in 2020, Samsung’s annual u-turn feels like home.

Thing is, we knew it'd happen. And yet Samsung did their usual mocking ads.

So I have to wonder: is Samsung that self-unaware? Is their market research really that far behind? Or — even though everybody knows they'll follow Apple with their next release — do they get a minor boost from the chattering of the anti-Apple crowd?

Like you say: it's utterly predictable. So why does it still happen?
 
It's hilarious how we all knew that Samsung was going to do this the moment Apple gave them the okay so they weren't doing it first. I kind of figured they'd wait one more year, but here we are just a few months later.

So I have to wonder: is Samsung that self-unaware? Is their market research really that far behind? Or — even though everybody knows they'll follow Apple with their next release — do they get a minor boost from the chattering of the anti-Apple crowd?
I interpret as the predictable behavior of a company without shame mixed with a bit of disrespect of its own customers.

Samsung, whatever you have to say about their engineering prowess, has been utterly shameless in its aping of Apple over the years. They clearly feel no corporate shame about this at all, it's not in their culture. If you feel no shame about hypocrisy, and additionally don't have enough respect of your customers to think they're going to notice when you do the exact thing you were encouraging them to point and laugh at your competitor about a mere four months ago, why not get the cheap boost for a couple of months? You only care about right now and have no reputation to defend, so mock Apple this month while you can and turn around next month and do exactly the same thing.

On the topic of broken corporate culture, it's not all that surprising for a company built up by a man who was convicted of corruption and tax evasion twice but kept getting let out of prison by the government he was being corrupt with.
 
Charger Apple used to include with iPhone was pretty cheap I am sure, and I don't think this "no charger" move is getting them tons of new revenue. I appreciate the move to create a more environmentally friendly business, and it's unfortunate that companies like Samsung are a couple decades behind when it comes to corporate responsibility.
 
Yeah, it was the benevolence of Samsung including a charger that made me switch into a slop OS and a completely insecure messaging protocol.

I'm not even sure what they were trying to accomplish here. It's like visiting a dating profile and seeing the person name drop their electric toothbrush...

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