Key components being sold separately to goose profits has become something of a running joke with the tech giant. But a fresh report has now confirmed the meme, claiming Apple managed to cash in an additional £5 billion (AU$9 billion) since removing accessories from new iPhone purchases.
The decision was first introduced back in 2020 as a means of cutting down its annual carbon emissions by two million tonnes. While this was met with praise from environmentalists for committing to waste reduction, Apple (understandably) drew the ire of consumers, who were stuck paying the exact same price – for an iPhone that supposedly offered more premium features to make up for the lack of kit – and forced to cough up a few more bucks if they wanted earphones ($29) and chargers ($29). In other words, the savings weren’t passed onto you.
“We know customers have been accumulating adapters and that producing millions of unneeded adapters consumes resources and adds to our carbon footprint.”
Lisa Jackson, Apple Head of Environment
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“At Apple, we are constantly innovating to conserve resources and protect the planet we all share.” a company spokesperson stated recently.
“Already carbon neutral for our own operations, we’ve set an ambitious goal to become carbon neutral for our entire supply chain and product usage by 2030 – so every Apple device sold will have net-zero carbon impact.”
“One of the steps along our path is to reduce the materials used in our products and packaging. This important step is to cut over two million metric tons of carbon emissions – equivalent to removing 500,000 cars from the road per year – and others are following our lead.”
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Experts have determined beyond saving an average of £27 (AU$48.70) per iPhone through the absence of accessories, the nine-figure profits banked by Apple will have also come from an estimated 40% reduction in shipping costs as smaller packaging allows for 70% more devices to be packed on each pallet.
At the time of this writing, Apple has sold approximately 190 million iPhones since the environmentally-friendly change’s implementation to present day.
