If you’ve recently purchased a new iPhone, you may have been surprised that there was no charging block in the box. This was a change Apple made back in 2020, and it earned them quite a bit of backlash.
After all, why wouldn’t they include a charging block with a thousand-dollar phone?
Well, that’s exactly what I’ll explain below.
Apple’s official reason for not including a charging brick with every iPhone is that it is more environmentally friendly. There is some truth to that.
The material that makes up each power brick is a very durable plastic designed to keep users safe if the unit overheats. But that also means it’s difficult to break down and recycle, contributing to the growing e-waste problem.
Not including a power adapter or headphones means a smaller box, allowing Apple to fit 70% more iPhones on each shipping pallet. In total, the reduction in carbon emissions would be like removing 450,000 cars from the road every year.
Apple also claimed that over 2 billion iPhone power bricks are already in circulation, so most users wouldn’t need a new one anyway.
However, there’s more to the story that Apple hasn’t mentioned. For example, the vast majority of power blocks already in use aren’t USB-C, which means the cable included with the new iPhone won’t plug into an old brick, forcing users to continue using their old cable that may be worn, frayed, or unreliable.
There’s also a huge financial aspect to this decision that Apple hasn’t acknowledged. The iPhone 17 Pro Max’s most expensive components are its A19 Pro chip and 5G modem at about $90 each, followed by the camera system and display at $80 each.
But with rising component costs across the board, including increased memory prices and advanced thermal solutions, Apple faces mounting pressure to maintain its margins. The iPhone Air’s ultra-thin design alone adds $25-40 to production costs due to engineering challenges.
This additional expense affects every model, including the $849 base iPhone 17, which must account for these higher component costs while maintaining Apple’s premium pricing strategy.
In an effort to cut costs and retain a high profit margin, Apple stopped including a charging brick and headphones while enjoying reduced shipping costs since they could fit 70% more units on each pallet.
While it is true that these changes benefit the environment to some degree, the type of green Apple really appeared to be after was money.
