• il y a 2 mois
Transcription
00:00Hey, what's up guys, MKBHD here.
00:05Ok, so there's this rumor floating around, confirmed at some various levels by some
00:10pretty reliable sources of the iPhone 12 not coming with a charger or headphones at all
00:19in the box when they come out in September this year.
00:21Now, to be clear, I think there are way more interesting other rumors about the iPhone
00:2512 floating around out there right now, but this is the one that's gotten the most interesting
00:29reactions because it is so polarizing one way or the other.
00:35And I don't usually do this, but I kind of want to, let's just assume this rumor is true
00:40because I want to go over those two different reactions because they're so fascinating to
00:45me right now.
00:46So, reaction number one, which is probably the first one that popped up into your head,
00:50which is, what?
00:53The iPhone's not going to ship with a charger?
00:56That seems ridiculous.
00:57I mean, that's ridiculous even to Apple levels of ridiculous.
01:01We've seen them do some pretty out there questionable stuff in the past, like the headphone jack,
01:07the laptop port situation, all kinds of things.
01:10And even maybe getting rid of the headphones in the box, we could understand.
01:14But the charging cable and the power brick, they're like the only necessary accessories.
01:21Those are the things you have to have in the box.
01:23That would be like shipping a car with no wheels or like a computer with no power cable.
01:30I don't know.
01:31It just seems ridiculous that you'd be able to buy something, especially that expensive.
01:35And it has some battery out the box, sure, so you can use it and set it up.
01:39But then as soon as it dies, you would have to spend extra to get it working again.
01:43So it just, optically, it just looks like pure greed, removing something from the box
01:47that's always been there, classic Apple, creating a problem and then selling you the solution.
01:52It'll probably be another 20, 30 bucks to go get that charger after you need it.
01:58Actually, I think I even said this on Twitter, but I was like, I don't think we've ever seen that before.
02:04Have we ever, ever seen a phone ship without a charger in the box?
02:12I don't think we've ever seen that.
02:13The charger is necessary.
02:15But then here is reaction number two.
02:18Yeah, whatever.
02:22Matter of fact, good.
02:23The iPhone doesn't actually really need to ship with a charger anymore.
02:26There's already about five different chargers sitting around most houses anyway.
02:30And hey, when I get a new phone, usually the things that I leave in the box are the paperwork
02:35and then the default headphones and charger because I have my own.
02:38Now, not everybody has my situation, obviously.
02:40But the point is, most people buying an iPhone already have an iPhone charger that's as good
02:46as the one that they were going to include in the box anyway.
02:48But then on top of that, at the iPhone's scale, which is huge, the e-waste savings
02:54would be absolutely massive.
02:57There's actually a great article I already tweeted by Dieter at The Verge.
02:59It's linked below where they go deeper into this.
03:02But basically, they spoke with the CEO of Anker, who notes that chargers built into
03:06the box that people end up throwing away are a gigantic source of e-waste.
03:11And if you include smartphones and tablets and laptops and power drills even, basically
03:17all these built-in chargers, when they get thrown away, you're probably looking at 300,000
03:23tons of e-waste per year.
03:26Tons!
03:27300,000 tons of waste every year.
03:31So the iPhone shipping without a power brick that most people already have would take a
03:36pretty big chunk out of that.
03:38That's just facts.
03:39And then, you know what?
03:40To take it a step further, efficiency also goes way up because now, instead of having
03:43to ship the phone and the earpods and the charger in the box, really all you have to
03:47ship to people is the phone and a little bit of that paperwork.
03:50And the iPhone's box is already one of the smaller boxes in the industry year after year,
03:55but getting rid of those accessories could cut the footprint basically in half, making
03:59it one of the smallest, meaning they can fit more on every truck and on every plane.
04:04And again, at that scale, that means real environmental impact.
04:08Plus, how Apple would that be, right?
04:09This is our thinnest box ever.
04:14So you know what?
04:15Good riddance.
04:16It would be a better smartphone world if Apple stopped shipping the charger.
04:20Okay, so in reality, my take is I'm actually somewhere in between these two places because
04:26it is a little bit more nuanced than that.
04:28Obviously, if they just remove the charger from the box, that would have been nice to
04:32have.
04:33That's just going to seem like a negative.
04:34But there are some other things that could also happen at the same time.
04:38This is pretty dynamic.
04:39What if they're able to adjust the price of the iPhone?
04:42See, naturally, one of the most popular reactions to they're not going to ship it with a charger
04:46and headphones was, okay, well, then you better not charge me the same price as the phone
04:50that came with those things.
04:51So if we look up here, the typical basic charger on Amazon right now with a brick would cost
04:57about 15 bucks.
04:59That's about equal to what Apple was going to ship.
05:02So you take 15 bucks off the price of the iPhone.
05:04Now you're at 985.
05:07And then a typical basic pair of headphones in the box.
05:10If you actually try to get those from Apple right now, they'll charge you 30 bucks.
05:14Obviously, they're not worth that much.
05:16But for the sake of argument, go ahead and take 30 more bucks off of the price of the
05:19iPhone.
05:21And now you're down to 955.
05:23Now if you're thinking about what Apple might do when seeing that, you'd think maybe they
05:26would just round it back up to 1000, right?
05:28How many customers were we going to have at 950 that we wouldn't have at 1000?
05:34Not that many, right?
05:35And again, Apple has lowered the price of the iPhone before.
05:39The iPhone 11.
05:40You might not remember, but very recently, the iPhone XR launched at 750 bucks.
05:46Then the next year, the iPhone 11 launched at 700.
05:50So there is precedent for it.
05:52Apple has lowered the price of the iPhone before.
05:54And then I think it would make it a bit more tolerable if they also offered on top of that
05:58a discount for people who do want to add back a new pair of headphones or a new charging
06:03brick to the purchase of their new iPhone.
06:06So really this would be more like shipping a camera without the lens.
06:12And if you've ever bought a DSLR, you'll know most of them ship without any lens.
06:17Even though a lens is a necessary accessory for the camera to be useful at all.
06:22And that's because most people buying one already have the lenses that they're going
06:27to use.
06:28Or if they don't, they can get a discount on a basic kit lens that can come with it
06:33to get you started, just like Apple could offer a discount on a basic, basic charger
06:40that they would include with the iPhone.
06:41But you know, just like the people who already have like five or six fancy lenses that they're
06:44going to use with the new DSLR, there's going to be people who buy the new iPhone that already
06:48have much nicer chargers than the one Apple was going to ship with the box.
06:52Like a fast charger, for example, or a wireless charger.
06:54So those people don't need the kit lens in the DSLR box.
06:57And those people don't need the built-in slow charger that they're just going to throw
07:01away and waste in the iPhone box.
07:03But yeah, that's really it.
07:05Because at the end of the day, I think the most interesting part of this is how is Apple
07:08going to spin it?
07:10Because you know, Apple, people are always sitting, waiting to write that negative headline
07:14about what Apple's going to do.
07:16And there's also people waiting to write that positive headline.
07:18So the question is, we've seen Apple basically conduct a masterclass over the years in tilting
07:25the way people view their products through different lenses.
07:28So how are they going to do it with this?
07:29We saw the headphone jack a couple of years ago.
07:33It was one of those things where it seemed pretty ridiculous that Apple was going to
07:36get rid of a simple, small, super useful port.
07:40And there are still people to this day who think that's ridiculous.
07:43But just a year or two after all these major companies were making fun of them for it,
07:49they were all copying them.
07:50And now, today, it's hard to find a phone with a headphone jack that's comparable to
07:54the iPhone.
07:55Not saying that's good or bad, but that's a very similar situation.
07:58So I think there's two ways that this could go.
08:01Number one is Apple doesn't say anything about it at all.
08:04They don't even mention it on stage.
08:06They don't talk about it.
08:08They're sort of trying to avoid another pro-stand moment on stage.
08:12The VESA-mounted Apple will be $199 and the pro-stand $999.
08:16And like the Mac Pro, they'll all be available in the fall.
08:22Like who would want to relive that again by saying there's no charger in the box?
08:26So they don't talk about it at all.
08:28It starts to ship and then it slowly gets uncovered by customers.
08:31And then you start to see probably a lot of headlines about how Apple didn't mention
08:35that.
08:36Which is why I think number two is actually more likely.
08:38I think they just go straight at it from the environmental angle.
08:41And this is something not everyone even cares that much about or notices.
08:45But I don't know if you've watched every keynote, but lately, Apple, every time they
08:49unveil a new hardware product, will always have a slide about this, which is how environmentally
08:53friendly that they're saying their manufacturing process is.
08:57It's always every year, right before they get to the price, they always show this slide.
09:00So you can see them really leaning into it with going the next level and not including
09:05the unnecessary charger and cables in the box and saving thousands of tons of e-waste
09:12in a single year during the process.
09:13You could see the Apple bloggers writing, defending that, right?
09:17Now, if Apple really, fully, truly cared deeply about the environmental impact, they would
09:24better support user repair.
09:26Or, here's a crazy idea, make the iPhone USB Type-C, so we don't need two different
09:31types of chargers every time, but that's probably a whole different video.
09:35But that's my guess for how I think Apple would be able to spin not shipping the accessory
09:43they've always shipped with the iPhone, the only one that's actually necessary to use
09:46it with the phone this year.
09:49Now one last point, made in an article by MG Siegler, also linked below.
09:55In case the question is, why didn't they do it last year or why are they picking this
10:00year to transition the iPhone to not having a charger?
10:03Is this just a greedy 2020 move?
10:05Is this a margins thing?
10:07Is this a 5G modems in the new iPhone will cost more, so they need a way to make those
10:11margins back?
10:13What is it about this year?
10:15And I think the answer might also include that the next, next iPhone, the iPhone 12S
10:22or 13, whatever it ends up being in 2021, is rumored to not have any ports at all.
10:26It's rumored to be the completely portless, no lightning, no USB-C, no port, all wireless
10:34iPhone.
10:35And so this might be a move just one year earlier to get people used to the idea of
10:40not having a charger in the box so that the next year, when the incredibly premium portless
10:46iPhone that is Apple's goal finally ships, they're used to it already.
10:51Something to think about.
10:52But either way, it's all, this is all the rumor we're talking about.
10:55Like I said, I generally don't do this talking extensively about something that might not
10:59even happen, but this is something I'm going to be paying attention to.
11:02And maybe you can leave your thoughts below on what you think Apple's move should be for
11:07the iPhone that comes out this year.
11:09Again, will they spin it?
11:11How will they defend not having a charger in the iPhone 12 box?
11:15Let me know what you think.
11:16Thanks for watching.
11:17Catch you guys in the next one.
11:19Peace!