Despite Apple’s teasing of no longer including a charger with the iPhone, Samsung and Xiaomi are now expected to follow suit and remove the charging adapter from their upcoming smartphones.
Along with the announcement of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, Apple has announced that it will no longer include the charging adapter with all new iPhones, citing environmental concerns. The move has been publicly criticized by rival smartphone makers Samsung and Xiaomi.
The day after the announcement of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, Xiaomi posted a video promoting the Mi 10T Pro on social media showing a charger unboxing along with the comment “Don’t worry, we haven’t. nothing left out of the box. “
Samsung also posted an image of a charger with the text “Included with your Galaxy” and the message:
Your #Galaxy gives you what you are looking for. From the most basic as a charger to the best camera, battery, performance, memory and even 120 Hz screen.
Despite these social media posts clearly mocking Apple’s move, Samsung is now supposed to, based on regulatory filings, remove the charger from the Galaxy S21, which is set to be unveiled on January 14. This is perhaps more likely. whereas Samsung has completely removed its ‘most basic as a charger’ post from social media, as spotted HTTech.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun also confirmed on Weibo that the company’s upcoming Mi 11 phone will not come with a charger due to environmental concerns. Jun said smartphone users already have many chargers, so including another one with the Mi 11 would add unnecessary environmental burden:
Xiaomi Mi 11 is officially unveiled with a whole new packaging, so light and thin.
Behind the thinness we made an important decision: in response to the call of technology and environmental protection, Xiaomi 11 canceled the included charger.
Today everyone has a lot of idle chargers, which is both a burden on you and on the environment. We are well aware that this decision may not be understood or even be the subject of complaints. Is there a better solution between industry practices and environmental protection?
IPhones now ship without wired EarPods or AC adapters in the box, with only a Lightning to USB-C charging cable included. With those accessories removed, all new iPhones now come in a thinner box. Apple touts the environmental benefits of no longer bundling these accessories, noting that the move cuts carbon emissions and avoids the extraction and use of rare earth elements.
With a major competitor no longer offering accessories like the power adapter and EarPods, Samsung and Xiaomi can now believe consumers are willing to purchase accessories separately. Samsung and Xiaomi are known to follow similar trends set by Apple in the past. For example, Samsung mocked Apple for removing the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 in 2016 before reflecting the decision and releasing the Galaxy A8 2018 without a headphone jack.