No doubt the first iPhone 12 owners are going to carefully open the box and document every moment on YouTube. It now looks like those views will be a little bit shorter, as Apple will be removing a key hardware feature from the packaging.
SAN FRANCISCO – JUNE 07: Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces the new iPhone 4 as he delivers the opening … [+] keynote address at the 2010 Apple World Wide Developers conference June 7, 2010 in San Francisco, California. Jobs kicked off their annual WWDC with the announcement of the new iPhone 4. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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Another report has backed up claims that Apple will not be including a pair of EarPods with the iPhone 12 handsets when they are released later this year. The details come from Wedbush’s Dan Ives, as reported by Benjamin Mayo:
“…he is hearing the same: “our checks that likely no wired EarPods will come in the iPhone 12 box/packaging”. Ultimately, this will help Apple drive sales of its wireless AirPods earbuds ever higher.
“The Wedbush analyst believes that Apple will sell 85 million AirPods units in 2020, compared to 65 million estimated in 2019.”
This matches up with reports earlier in the year from noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Removing the EarPods from the packaging offers a number of financial benefits to Apple, but that increased margin comes at the cost of diminishing the user experience.
While users are not going to make purchasing decisions on the contents of the retail box, that unboxing experience creates the first impression of the product. Stories of Steve Jobs meticulously opening and closing packaging to analyse this mood is the sort of attention to detail that helps a brand stand out and create little emotional rushes before a handset is switched on.
To take one practical example, I personally appreciate when a manufacturer puts a case in the box. It might only be a clear TPU cover, but it says ‘the phone is worth something’.
Over the years, Tim Cook’s Apple has reduced the packaging around the iPhone; removing the plastic carry case for the EarPods, using a slower charger, and quickly dropping dongles being three notable examples
Removing the EarPods would be an obvious continuation of this policy. The saving on removing the hardware will add up over the teens of millions of new handsets sold
Will the consumers notice? They’ll certainly miss the moment of joy that Steve Jobs hoped for when you bought an Apple product. But they’ll probably just spend more money with Apple and buy some AirPods.
Which I guess is the point, but it is another step from Apple away from being a jewel of marketing towards being just another manufacturer.
Now read why Apple’s software will never survive in a museum….
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