Wireless future?
By: Nysa Garg
Tags: Charger, Wireless, iPhone, Apple, MacBook

Wireless future?

A take on the recent rumour about the exclusion of the charger and the earbuds in the iPhone-12 packaging. Nysa Garg Sep 10, 2020·4 min read

? headphone jack ¿

‘A money grab move?’ or ‘a step towards the future’.The company, famous for the usage of their patent ‘i’ nomenclature, is known for its ‘breakthrough’ ideas and it’s simplistic’ design. Recent rumours have shocked the online community, suggesting apple’s plan to ship the soon-to-arrive iPhone 12 without the charger and the earbuds in the box- ‘simplifying’ their costs even further. This leak has divided the community into 2 extremes- some calling it apple’s another notorious cost-cutting move whereas some calling it a peep into the future. I plan to bring a middle ground to the debate and dive deeper into it.

Apple as a company is infamous for its habit of excluding ports and virtually removing technology since the beginning. For a clearer comparison, the first MacBook Pro (2006) had 9 ports whereas the most recent one (2020) has, well, only 1. Now, this technique is justified to some extent as the time is changing and so should the hardware. Apple has been very transparent to the market about its definition of the future- wireless connectivity, and hence gradually removing the ports is just a step towards achieving the goal. Now I am not going to argue about the capabilities of Thunderbolt 3 over USB-C since I personally think it’s a one-sided debate. Thunderbolt 3 with its 4 times the transfer data speed than the USB C and its capability of presenting 5K display is the port of the present and a right way forward for apple. The removal of CD/DVD drives had shocked the community when it happened- but was shortly followed suit by other giants, proving the industry yet again about its ‘futuristic’ thinking and obsoleting yet another technology. This is not only limited to MACs. The port drop of the 3.5 mm headphone jack in iPhone 7 was met with a lot of criticism. Even though unlike other technologies this stuck with other manufacturers for a while, soon enough they too followed apples lead making Bluetooth headphones a standard today. Apple’s rapid removal of the ports has made it quite evident that the future they aim to achieve is not far away when the new normal becomes hardware with no physical ports.

Apple continued and will continue to execute these moves despite the initial criticism it gets to achieve 1 goal- to improve the design and the overall form factor of its products. It was the first company to invest a lot in the consumer experience. The removal of the headphone jack allowed apple more room to work with inside the phone and also enabled them to include improved water and dust protection mechanism (IP67). Similarly, the removal of the DVD drive, allowed MacBooks to be significantly slimmer making it more mobile hardware- improving the consumer experience. Apple has always been a company which aims to keep its products the most user friendly (having the sleekest design) in the market while not compromising on the performance- which has been reflected in the latest iPad pro the company has launched.

To bring both the goals of giving the users the best consumer experience and to achieve wireless connectivity may have played a significant role in the decision if the rumours are considered to be true. Now let’s look at some of the possible reason which could lead to apple taking such a bold step.

Firstly, its no rocket science that not shipping the charger and other accessories will not affect the design of the product. However, this will significantly affect the overall box-size, halved if not more. Smaller packaging directly translates to cost reduction as more packages now can be shipped across the globe with the same number of containers, reducing the average cost price drastically. The reduced costs may be an indication to lower product prices- however, nothing is certain.

Now let’s look at the ecological viewpoint. I ask you this if you are already an iPhone user: do you need a new charger or a new earbud with your new device? It’s a fact that an overwhelming amount of iPhone users have been iPhone users for many years and hence very likely to already have a perfectly usable lightning charger. According to a statistical study, the entirety of chargers and earphones shipped with phones that are thrown away, account for 300,000 tonnes of e-waste. For Apple being a proud carbon neutral company, this could be a bold yet effective step towards making their products’ carbon-neutral too and immensely reducing the electronic waste.

Now lastly, the only other possible reason to exclude the charger and the earbud in the packaging could be to prepare the market for a portless phone which apple is indicating to launch by next year. Removing the charger and the earbuds could be a smooth transition for people to get accustomed to new packaging which they might see in the future with the wireless charging coming up. However, there is a lot of uncertainty around this presumption due to the big bucks involved in it.

Finally, in all, this move appears to have the ultimate benefits for the entire community in one way or the other. Be it the environmental enthusiast to the price critics. Since all these speculations revolve around a rumour- nothing is certain. Hence only a wait of a few months will disclose the definite answer to what Apple has got up on their sleeves.