No more charging and headphones with iPhone, “to save the environment”

Apple has announced that it will no longer supply chargers and wired headphones along with the iPhones it sells. This announcement applies to the new iPhone 12 series, including the most expensive Pro Max models, but also to older devices that the company continues to manufacture and sell. The iPhone XR, iPhone 11 and iPhone SE models, which have so far been sold in a package that also includes a charger and headphones, will now be delivered to stores in a package that includes only the device alongside a USB-C charging cable.

As it did when it announced the Apple Watch Series 6 about a month ago, this time too Apple claims that the decision not to supply charger and headphones in the packaging is solely due to ecological reasons: most consumers, according to Apple, already have a charger and headphones in their home. The company has provided data that it has for its devices out there 700 million headphones and 2 billion chargers. These are savings in materials that Apple will have to use, air pollution emitted during the production process, and ultimately also in the garbage piled up in landfills.

In addition, Apple has reduced the size of the box in which the various iPhones are sold, allowing it to pack together 70 percent more devices per shipment. In all, Apple claims that the degree of ecological savings directly resulting from the move is equivalent to removing about half a million vehicles from the road each year.

Of course not everyone on the net is in a hurry to get the explanation. While there is no doubt that removing products from the packaging will indeed contribute somewhat to the environment, it is undoubtedly also likely to contribute to Apple’s profits that it can sell consumers separately chargers and headphones, and perhaps even persuade them to invest in more expensive wireless headphones such as the successful AirPods series.