14 DAY TRIAL // All iPhone 12 models will come without a charger and EarPods in the box, and Apple says it’s doing this for environmental protection reasons, as it can help reduce electronic waste in the long term.
But while it originally seemed that the iPhone 12 would be the only lineup affected by this decision, it looks like Apple is also pulling the charger and the EarPods from previous models too.
As per GSM Arena, iPhone 11, iPhone SE, and iPhone XR are also shipping without a charger and EarPods in the box, unless they are sold in France where local regulation require headsets to prevent radiation.
People close to the matter previously said that pulling the iPhone charger and the EarPods was a method that Apple would turn to in order to deal with the price increase caused by the addition of 5G. So theoretically, Apple wanted to keep the price of the iPhone 12 at a lower level by removing some accessories that it shipped with the device, instead requiring customers to buy them separately and thus pay extra for the full package.
Environmental protection
But Apple says it’s doing it to protect the planet.
“Customers already have over 700 million Lightning headphones. And many customers have moved to a wireless experience with air pods, Beats, or other wireless headphones,” Apple executives said during the iPhone 12 launch event.
“And there are also over 2 billion Apple power adapters out in the world, and that’s not counting the billions of third-party adapters. So we are removing these items from the iPhone box, which reduces carbon emissions and avoids the mining and use of precious materials. Removing these items also means a smaller, lighter iPhone box. We can fit up to 70% more products on a shipping pallet, reducing carbon emissions in our global logistics chain.”