technology news: We asked, you told us: You hate the idea of Apple dropping the in-box charger

mercredi 1 juillet 2020

We asked, you told us: You hate the idea of Apple dropping the in-box charger

iPhone Box with Charger and cable

Credit: Adamya Sharma / Android Authority

Apple's flagship iPhones are certainly not cheap and not everyone can afford to buy additional accessories for them. A few days back, a respected Apple analyst said that the iPhone 12 series will not include a charging adapter in the box. Instead, Apple is apparently going to force its customers to buy a new 20W charger separately.

This is something extremely out of character, even for Apple. In-box accessories for iPhones have always meant getting a pair of EarPods, a charging adapter, and a charging cable at the very least. In fact, the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max were the first set of Apple phones to ship with an 18W USB-C charger. Everyone was happy that Apple finally upgraded the age-old wall plug and the charging cable for the new iPhones. Now, news of this apparent sudden U-turn has come as quite a shock to the Apple community.

So keeping all this in mind, we polled you, our readers, to ask one simple question: How do you feel about Apple doing away with the in-box charger for the iPhone 12? Here's what you had to say.

How would you feel about Apple dropping the charger?

Apple iPhone Charger Poll

Results

We got a total of 3,115 responses and the results were unanimous. A resounding 77.2% of you resent Apple's move to drop the in-box charger for the iPhone 12. Meanwhile, almost 8% of you are okay with it and over 14% of you don't care either way.

This is not at all surprising. Something as basic as a charging adapter is the least Apple could add with a $1,000 phone. Then again, this is all still based on an analyst's speculation, and for all we know, Apple won't go ahead with this approach.

Here's what you had to say

iPhone SE lightning port 1

Credit: David Imel / Android Authority

You had a lot of insightful things to say about why you feel the way you do about Apple's possible decision. Let's delve into some of those comments to try and gauge the sentiment around the topic.

comicGeek: Let's be honest, Apple will only do this for the bottom line. The specs do not matter. They are going to do this to raise their margins per device sold.
Ozzie Khoo: Apple should drop the 5W and include the 20W in my opinion. Over this past year, they have been focusing on what consumers want and this would just continue the streak. With the way everything is right now, it is definitely NOT the time to ask your customers to spend more money then they should.
Tony Talks: For me personally, I feel like the charger should've been included. Aren't they like the most financially successful company in the world?! For someone like myself who hasn't used an iPhone in several years and actually interested I, unfortunately, don't have an Apple charger around. Long term I believe it does make sense though. I have to acknowledge most others might have an Apple charger lying around and won't need another one. It also minimizes E-waste.
Dave Hannem: If I was already an iPhone user, I'd have already purchased their upgraded charger anyway. I have been considering switching from Android and giving iOS a try this year, and I had already taken into account probably having to purchase the upgraded charger to replace the 5W they usually include anyway… so it really doesn't change anything for me.
Jeff Campbell: These power blocks probably cost pennies to make for Apple and including them should have no impact on profit. Just an excuse to charge for more accessories. Apple is greedy. Headphones I can see dropping.
NIKI S: For me, myself. It is not a good option. The best option is to include a 20W/30W adaptor charger and USB cable. It is okay no included earbuds, but for the adapter charger and the USB cable, I think it is a must.

It's clear from the comments above that most of you are very keen on Apple retaining the wall plug in the box of future iPhones because you don't want to spend extra. Some of you also make compelling arguments that first-time Apple users or those converting from Android won't have extra iPhone chargers lying around.

Apple does plan to put a charging cable in the box though. However, we don't know if it's a USB-C to Lightning cable, like in the case of the iPhone 11 Pro, or if it's the legacy USB-A to Lightning cable. It matters because lots of iPhone users have USB-A adapters lying around but not many have USB-C iPhone power plugs to spare. Let's now wait and see what Apple ends up doing.