A new report from famed Apple Ming-Chi Kuo says that the company may not include wired EarPods with iPhone 12 purchases. This, says Kuo, is because the company will try and boost AirPods sales over the holiday season this year. Kuo also says that the company will offer heavy discounts on AirPods during the holiday season to further boost sales.
With that in mind, Kuo has also increased his sales estimates for AirPods from 80 to 93 million units. While it would make sense for Apple to drop prices on the 2nd-gen AirPods because they will be around 18 months old by the time the iPhone 12 launches, it will be unfortunate if the company decides to not include regular EarPods with the upcoming iPhone.
I’m all for discounted Apple products, but not including EarPods inside the box is an incredibly poor decision. Sure, you can argue that people buying an iPhone can probably spend another $159 to buy AirPods. However, this isn’t Apple’s first offence and it’s more unforgivable than its last.
For those who don’t know, Apple ships a 5W charging brick with the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, and even the flagship iPhone XS and XS Max. That, when all of these phones support 18W fast charging. The company only bundles the fast charger with the expensive iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max. That was a clear push to increase revenue as well, with people having to buy an iPhone fast charger and a USB-C to Lightning cable separately to charge their iPhones quicker.
This latest report definitely sounds like something Apple might do. The company will undoubtedly come up with some outlandish explanation for its decision, and most of its users will end up buying AirPods over third party options. Either way, I’m still holding out hope that Apple won’t take this decision, but we’re just going to have to wait and see.
