Apple makes big 5G iPhone move but claims that it's for the environment, not to hike profits

Whether you're planning on picking up a new Apple iPhone 12 model or even the iPhone SE (2020) which has already been on the market for nearly half of a year, you might need to allocate a few extra bucks to pick up a power adapter. Apple announced today that it will no longer ship the charging brick with its phones. With 2 billion Apple chargers already released over the years, Apple is portraying this as an environmental move rather than a way to increase profit margins. Also missing from the boxes will be the wired earpods. The company says that it has distributed over 700 million wired earpods with a Lightning connector over the years.

Apple says that these moves will reduce carbon emissions and allow the company to reduce the size of the box allowing 70% more product to fit on a pallet. The amount of pollutants that this move will save is the equivalent of taking 450,000 cars off of the roads over the course of a year.

We expect that those purchasing the new iPhone models online will see a prompt giving them the option to add the latest power adapter to their purchase at a extra cost. Last year, an 18W charger came in the box with the iPhone 11 Pro handsets. But if you want the fastest charging capabilities on your iPhone 12 Pro, you'll have to purchase a new charging brick which is rumored to charge at 20W or higher. What will in the box is a higher quality USB-C to Lighting cable.

Reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is calling for Apple to deliver an iPhone that charges only wirelessly as soon as next year. And a less ambitious version of the never released Air Power charging pad is rumored to be in the works for the iPhone 12 Pro Max.