The iPhone is less than 1cm wide. Why is the box so huge? E-waste.
A while back, I had a suggestion for what Apple should have in the iPhone box: an iPhone. Perhaps a charging cable and a sim ejector tool, but that’s it. No more Lighting Earpods, I have a dozen of those in random boxes in my apartment. Not yet another 5V charging plug, I have much better fast charging adapters that I use anyway. No, just an iPhone, and maybe, maybe, a cable, but only because Apple makes their cables so poorly that you need to replace them every other year.
Well, if rumors are correct, Apple’s taking my advice. The new iPhone 12 will come in a slimmer box with just an iPhone and charging cable. It’ll reduce waste, keep your useless and to-be-recycled electronics box from overflowing, and be much better for the environment. Apple will sell a new 20 watt charger separately, for fast charging of any new iPhone.
But some people really aren’t happy they’re not getting a free charger anymore.
https://twitter.com/L0vetodream/status/1278206861989175296?s=20
In This Article:
No More Chargers or Earpods
If you’ve never owned an iPhone before, or haven’t had one since the iPhone 7, you won’t have Lightning headphones. Maybe you don’t currently own Bluetooth headphones either. If that’s the case, you won’t have a way to listen to music or movies on your new iPhone 12. Well, not to yourself, anyway, the device will still have speakers. However, you could make sure to buy Apple’s $9 Lightning to headphone adapter with the purchase of your new iPhone. That would allow you to use your old headphones. You could also choose to buy EarPods, but I don’t know why you’d do that, they’re not very good. You’d be better off spending a little more for cheap Bluetooth headphones or some decent yet inexpensive wired headphones.
If you do not own a computer and have never owned an electronic device before, you won’t have a charger for your iPhone either. For that, I recommend a decent, but inexpensive and small plug. You could go with Anker’s dual port USB charger for $9.99, or, really splurge, and get a fast charger, like this $15.99 charger from RavPower.
Of course, you likely already have a charger. You may already have headphones. So, the fact that the iPhone won’t come with them in the box likely won’t be a problem for you.
New Options
According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is working on a new 20W fast charger. This would cost more than the 5W charger Apple includes in the base model, but would likely cost the same as the one included in the “Pro” models. Currently, Apple sells an 18W USB-C fast charging power adapter for $29. They also sell the EarPods that are included in the box currently for $29. Then there’s the USB-C to Lighting cable, which is $19. That’s $80 of accessories that Apple’s including in the box. Now, some rumors state that the charging cable will still be included, so let’s say Apple’s only tacking on $60 to the price of the new iPhone by not including these. Seeing as you can get third party adapters for much less, Apple may even offer a discount. Perhaps they’ll offer them as a bundle option at checkout, allowing the customer to get them separately.
Just by giving the users the option, they can drastically reduce e-waste. If you need a charger, you can get one with the iPhone. If you’re like most people in the 21st century, you already have a USB power adapter on hand, if not dozens of them. But the option will still be there to upgrade to a much faster charger from Apple, if you want that. Of course, the smart option would be to just buy third party accessories, which will be more durable, charge faster, sound better, and cost less anyway.
Hundreds of Thousands of Tons of E-Waste
Imagine how much slimmer the iPhone box could be.
Dieter Bohn of The Verge reached out to accessory maker Anker. Now, Anker has some bias here. Obviously, because they make accessories for the iPhone, they’d be happy if Apple didn’t include those accessories, thus increasing demand. Still, they have a good point. Their entire business model exists because they sell chargers that are better than Apple’s or other manufacturers. Users tired of waiting hours for their phone to charge get one of Anker’s chargers, and do it in half the time, for half the price of Apple’s fast chargers. But what happens to that old charger? It’s e-waste.
Anker estimates that 300,000 tons of e-waste come from just the in-box chargers that people realize they don’t need and discard. 300,000 tons, per year. That’s a lot of waste that people likely aren’t recycling properly. The iPhone, especially in the United States, makes up a huge volume of those shipped USB adapters. Perhaps nearly half of them. But let’s just say 1/3. 100,000 tons of waste saved. Furthermore, we haven’t even considered the e-waste of Apple’s included EarBuds. The modern ones only work on your iPhone anyway, so you still need a separate pair of headphones for your other devices. That’s more e-waste saved. Finally, we have to consider emissions. Apple will be able to ship these iPhones in smaller packages. That means more iPhones per boat, plane, or truck. That means fewer flights and vehicles emitting CO2. Frankly, simply cutting these out of the box is a gigantic win for the environment, and it’ll cost you, at most, $30 to make up for it?
Well what if it wouldn’t even cost you that much?
Apple Reducing Costs, And Passing Savings Along
Reportedly, Apple’s iPhones this year will be cheaper than the current generation of iPhones for the replacement models. Potentially by as much as $50 for each model. The base iPhone 12 could be just $650, $50 less than the base iPhone 11. This may be, in part, due to drastically reduced shipping costs from Apple’s new slimmer packaging. It could also be that Apple has decided that a lower price point is more likely to get people engaged with their services and ecosystem, creating long-term customers. Whatever the reason, this means that you could replace the parts Apple would have previously included in the box for less than the cost of them directly from Apple. However, my guess is, you don’t need to do that.
I have dozens of cables. An untold number of EarPods over the years (Lightning and 3.5mm jack). Most are still in the packaging. Some, I gave away, most I’ve just stored away with the other electronics I have no use for. We should applaud the fact that Apple’s making a decision to reduce waste and emissions. According to leakers, the new iPhone 12 box will be a gorgeous, slim thing. I can’t wait to see it this fall.
Okay, mostly I can’t wait to see what’s in the box, and the ecological effects of providing a slimmer packaging with less e-waste, but you get where I was going with that, right?
Likeliness? High.
I believe this rumor seems all but certain. It’s a huge win for the environment, won’t inconvenience users greatly, prepares us for a future port-less iPhone, and may end up giving us drastically cheaper iPhones. This is a huge win. Not only have we heard this rumor from a few leakers, but analysts have claimed it’ll happen as well. Furthermore, Apple started sending out surveys to iPhone owners, asking them how they use the included accessories in the box. Though I wasn’t polled, here’s my answer: I don’t. I leave them in the box or throw them in an electronics bin.
The next iPhone will answer a lot of complaints people have had about the iPhone. It’ll feature easier to grip sides, a smaller notch, and a smaller form factor as an option. Now it’ll also shrink Apple’s impact on the environment and save us a little clutter.
Sources:
- Dieter Bohn, The Verge
- Lisa Eadicicco, Business Insider
- Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac
- Tim Hardwick, MacRumors
- Jay McGregor, Forbes
- Joe Rossignol, MacRumors