Why Apple Should Continue Shipping a Charger with Future iPhones

The most prevalent rumor bouncing around the blogosphere is that Apple will not included the wall plug with the next round of iPhones. Everyone believes it. Almost no one is taking it skeptically. More disturbing is the fact that everyone seems to be perfectly happy with that idea. Whether or not I believe the rumor is irrelevant. But I am most certainly not happy about the idea. Here’s why:

Think outside the bubble

I am disappointed at the number of pundits who have declared that it is a good thing for Apple to not include a plug in the box because they already have a ton of them lying about their homes and offices. Bully for you. If Apple is listening to the pundits who also have more than one smartphone they actively use, then they are listening to the wrong constituency.

Apple also has tunnel vision if they are considering all the repeat customers who will be purchasing their second or tenth iPhone. A few years ago, I stopped bothering to remove the plug and cord from the box because there was no need for me to undo the old ones. Once I had a spare for my travel bag, I was all set. But again, it is not about me. Here are the people Apple should be considering:

New iPhone/smartphone customers

How myopic do you have to be to have forgotten that you were once a first-time smartphone buyer? More to the point, you were once a first-time iPhone buyer. Guess what, there are millions of first-time buyers entering every cycle. Some have been saving up for an iPhone and this will be their first one. Some will just be aging into owning their first smartphone. either way, they do not have a ton of these wall warts lying about. Their experience will be subpar if they don’t have a way to charge the phone out of the box. Also consider recent regulations that prohibit things like smartphones from being shipped with a full charge.

Flippers

For the first few years of my iPhone life, I was on AT&T There was a way to upgrade every year for little upfront cost. Every year, I sold my old phone and purchased a new one. It was a good system that worked until smartphone subsidies came to a screeching halt. I included the charger with every phone I sold. So during that period, I didn’t have any extra chargers. There are plenty of people who still flip their iPhone every year. They are selling the whole experience including the original packaging. They have one phone at a time and sell it after a year. There needs to be a charger in the box for those who sold or passed down their old equipment.

Safety and warranty concerns

Remember when Samsung’s flagship phone wouldn’t stop catching on fire. It happened enough so that the phones were banned on flights. Around that time, the occasional iPhone would also get a little splody. It happens periodically. In every case that was investigated, the cause was the use of a third-party cable or charger. Going cheap meant taking your phone, and maybe your life in your hands. Apple’s advice was always to purchase original equipment for iPhones. What of that message in a world where there are no first-party chargers in the box? There will be a race to the bottom from third-party accessory manufacturers. This time, the problem will be on Apple.

Charging is a necessity, not an option

It was okay when Apple stopped shipping a charging stand with the iPhone because while charging was a necessity, a nice stand was an option. The same is true with cases and cleaning cloths. You can use every bit of the iPhone’s native functionality with what comes in the box. If they remove the charger from the box, the iPhone will be a brick without the separate purchase of an essential item. You can sell a car without fins. But you can’t sell a car without tires. You can’t even sell a car without gas. You have to have enough gas to drive it off the lot. If iPhones are shipped drained, you can’t even power it on.

Conclusion: Step away from the mirror

The people who think shipping an iPhone without a charger is a good idea are doing too much navel-gazing. They are staring into the mirror and ignoring the window. The mirror is a feedback loop. The window shows you something other than yourself. The plug in the box is not for you. What Apple should do is give people an option to not get a plug in the box. But your desire to have fewer plugs should have no bearing on whether or not Apple ships smartphones with plugs.

People have tried to make it more than just about themselves by citing environmental concerns. iPhone plugs are very small. And it doesn’t sound like many people are actually throwing them away. So I question how much of an environmental impact we are talking about. But if they are going to be consistent, those iPhones also shouldn’t come in boxes. They should come in brown, paper bags. While we’re at it, let’s cut the brightness in half so that the phones don’t use so much energy.

This is a silly argument that is more about virtue-signaling than about true environmental impact. Just how many people are calling for the end of plugs in the box while driving something that guzzles fossil fuel? Your gaming PC or Xbox is more harmful to the environment many times over. I have little patience for this brand of hypocrisy.

Removing the plug is a bad idea. Here’s to hoping Apple steps away from the ledge.