Buying a new or old iPhone, get ready to pay more
When Apple unveiled the all-new iPhone 12 series it dropped quite a ‘bombshell’ on prospective buyers. The Cupertino-based tech giant said that it won’t be shipping iPhones with a charger or wired earphones.The official reason given by Apple is that it will help in reducing the raw materials used for every iPhone that is sold. The retail box automatically becomes smaller, which too will reduce carbon emissions. Apple during the keynote explained that this step will reduce over 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions in a year. In other words, Apple has ‘removed’ 4.5 lakh cars from the road every year with one step.
Environmentally, it’s a sound design but from buyer’s perspective it’s got to pinch. What Apple has done is that it has taken out the wall charger from the new as well as old iPhones. If you go on the Apple Store to buy the iPhone 11, under What’s in the Box tab you will see this note, “As part of our efforts to reach environmental goals, iPhone 11 no longer includes a power adapter or EarPods. Please use your existing Apple power adapter and headphones or buy these accessories separately.”
Now, if you are an iPhone user and are holding on to the old charger well and good. But if you are a first time buyer, it means that you will have spend extra on a charger. If you are fond of music and want to listen on the iPhone, you will either need a true wireless earbuds — Apple would want you to buy AirPods. If you want to use a wired headphone, then it means buying a dongle as iPhone comes with a lightning connector. If you aren’t part of the hallowed Apple ecosystem then it means you will not have a lightning connector in your life. So first-time iPhone buyers will have to pay more.
Even if you are an existing iPhone user and want to buy the iPhone 12 series, get ready to pay more. iPhone 12 series will ship with Type-C to lightning cable — which means that any club with a microUSB port becomes redundant. Very few — except Samsung, Google — phones come with Type-C chargers and other devices don’t really support. So you will have to spend more on a charger at least.
The cost of buying an iPhone has always been high but with one swoop of removing two things out of the box has made it slightly more — for both new and old iPhone buyers.
Environmentally, it’s a sound design but from buyer’s perspective it’s got to pinch. What Apple has done is that it has taken out the wall charger from the new as well as old iPhones. If you go on the Apple Store to buy the iPhone 11, under What’s in the Box tab you will see this note, “As part of our efforts to reach environmental goals, iPhone 11 no longer includes a power adapter or EarPods. Please use your existing Apple power adapter and headphones or buy these accessories separately.”
Now, if you are an iPhone user and are holding on to the old charger well and good. But if you are a first time buyer, it means that you will have spend extra on a charger. If you are fond of music and want to listen on the iPhone, you will either need a true wireless earbuds — Apple would want you to buy AirPods. If you want to use a wired headphone, then it means buying a dongle as iPhone comes with a lightning connector. If you aren’t part of the hallowed Apple ecosystem then it means you will not have a lightning connector in your life. So first-time iPhone buyers will have to pay more.
Even if you are an existing iPhone user and want to buy the iPhone 12 series, get ready to pay more. iPhone 12 series will ship with Type-C to lightning cable — which means that any club with a microUSB port becomes redundant. Very few — except Samsung, Google — phones come with Type-C chargers and other devices don’t really support. So you will have to spend more on a charger at least.
The cost of buying an iPhone has always been high but with one swoop of removing two things out of the box has made it slightly more — for both new and old iPhone buyers.
