Apple Might Also Remove The iPhone Charging Cable From The Box
The iPhone 12 changed a lot of things, from the camera combination to the design of the edges. The biggest change, however, is not in the phone itself but what came with it inside the box. Apple's decision to not ship with EarPods and even a charger proved to be controversial despite the company's claims of benefiting the environment and lowering costs. It might not be stopping there, however, as a recent after-sales survey suggests it is mulling over removing even the USB-C Lightning cable in the future.
Apple's official justification for removing what many might consider essential accessories for the iPhone 12 is to help reduce the impact of redundant electronics on the environment. Almost everyone has some phone charger these days and many buying an iPhone 12 might already have older iPhones that came with chargers anyway.
Some, however, see it more as a bit of cost-cutting in light of the more expensive components that Apple has added to this year's iPhone generation. Others also see it as a way for Apple to make some extra profits from selling chargers separately to those that don't happen to have a USB-C iPhone charging brick. And still others, like the Brazilian government, don't even buy Apple's official reasons.
The company might be stirring even further controversy by doing away with even the USB-C to Lightning charging cable. New iPhone 12 owners are apparently being asked whether they use the other items that are shipped in the box, like the SIM ejector tool and the charging cable. Apple also made a similar survey about iPhone chargers before it decided to remove those.
Of course, this survey isn't a guarantee that Apple will remove the cable from the packaging, at least not anytime soon given the recent atmosphere surrounding the charger removal. It could, however, prove to be even more controversial since, unlike USB-C chargers, USB-C to Lightning cables are less standardized and trust in the quality of third-party cables might be so low that consumers will end up buying Apple's official cables anyway.