The beginning of the end for Apple’s charging brick.
(Source: MobileSyrup)

October 2020 sees the tech world being environmentally cautious, especially with the likes of Apple with their announcement of excluding the charging brick along with other accessories in their box with the newly launched iPhone 12 line-up.

On the basis of pursuing the agenda as an entirely ‘carbon-neutral’ tech industry by the year 2030, these are some of Apple's initial manoeuvres in achieving the prospect. The logic here is that with fewer components in the retail box, the packaging will be much thinner hence reducing the raw resources needed and carbon footprint emitted throughout its production.

iPhone 12 box is the thinnest in comparison to the previous model of iPhones.
(Source: AppleInsider)

Apple also claims that most of its iPhone users are loyal and existing customers. To include a new charging brick in every version of the iPhone can be redundant especially when existing and compatible chargers are already available at home, even with the new USB-C to lightning cable.

This initiative by Apple has been the trendsetter for other tech entities such as Samsung and Xiaomi to tramp forward a greener future. On paper, this may seem like Apple cares for the well-being of the planet, but this approach has been met with outrage from the public, claiming it was only a public relation gimmick.

Ulwan Mokhtar Mohed or better known as Cikgu Ulwan on the social media platforms, a tech enthusiast and content creator, shared his thoughts with Berita DIMENSi via Instagram on this whole discussion revolving around Apple and the concern of the environment.

“Not every iPhone user that will be upgrading their smartphones to iPhone 12 still has a fully operational charging brick. Years of usage you should expect it to be worn out, some might have even thrown it away.

“Every year, the capabilities of a charging brick could be improved to a new height, for instance we now have the new fast-charging feature, less downtime in charging speed compared to the older ones. The point here is that people are constantly eyeing for an upgrade.

“It was also uncalled for by Apple to generalize and assume that their target market is all existing iPhone users. What if a newcomer is planning to buy his or her first iPhone? Does it mean that they need to buy the charger separately?” Ulwan questioned the decision by Apple.

Ultimately, this group of people will still wind up buying a brand-new charger one way or another. It is a necessity. Thus, it is inevitable.

“It defeats the purpose, you want to lower down the rate of production and shipping of charging bricks to reduce carbon footprint, but the demand for it is still sky-high.

“The process was removed to be replaced with another similar process. The charging brick ordered separately will be delivered to the customers using motorized vehicles, more consummation of fossil fuel and even more boxes. The carbon footprint is still there, nothing really changes for the better,” Ulwan stressed on the lacklustre of this strategy by Apple.

Ordering the charging brick separately mean more delivery required for more parcel.
(Source: BusinessWorld)

Apple of all, a corporation of this magnitude should have seen this coming from miles away. Ulwan believed that Apple had some plan up their sleeve.

“Apple is removing the charging brick to prepare people for the direction they are heading to, a portless smartphone. Wireless charging is the way to go in this foreseeable future. This explains why Apple introduced the MagSafe charger this year, a wireless charging pad.

The newly introduced Apple’s MagSafe Charger.
(Source: Tom's Guide)

“Wireless charging may be looked at as an ideal concept in this modern world of tech, but do not be fooled. It is more or less the same thing as a charging brick, consumes a lot more power, produces a lot of heat, a heap of energy wasted, and is overall inefficient.

“In the long run, it does more harm than good to the environment rather than aligning to the eco-friendly aspect of Apple’s policy,” Ulwan explained.

So does this push for the removal of the charger from smartphones is really for the greater good of the environment? Well, think again.

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