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Comment by oarsinsync | Hacker News Reader

> > it really feels like a cost cutting measure they are trying really hard to spin as an eco-friendly one

> This is cynical.

The iPhone SE launched with earbuds and a plug. It no longer ships with them. The retail price hasn't changed. It can be good for the environment and a cost-cutting measure.

Another commenter has noted that by making the box about half as thick, that doubles the number of units that can fit in a container. That's a huge saving for Apple. And yet the iPhone SE still retails at the same price despite now including less.

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I find it a total branding win from Apple that people are even discussing this. To me it is a clear loss to the customer and to the environment. You only have to go on any Apple forum to see people getting their power bricks and cases shipped separately from their iPhones. Its beyond my pay grade to calculate the extra emissions from those power bricks being shipped separately, assuming not every new iPhone purchase is accompanied by a power brick purchase, but the profit margin for Apple went up for sure.

This is the new normal. Sealed hardware to discourage battery replacement, no 3.5mm jack to discourage reuse of old headphones and to encourage sales of Airpods with their tiny 2 year batteries, and now, no power bricks to encourage sales of extra power bricks. All greenwashed and the idiot consumer buys it.

Maybe prices for materials or manufacturing or handling went up? Maybe they want to make some more profit this year for their workers and shareholders? Times are hard.

Why is any of this your business?

Either the price works for you or it doesn't. There's no moral component to this. You aren't entitled to low costs.

> Why is any of this your business?

Because I am the person paying for the thing?

But why do you care what their costs are? What will you do with that information? Either the product is worth it for what you need or it isn’t.

You're telling him not to care about their costs, but Apple is straight up telling him to care about their savings, but don't pass it on to the consumer.

Generally speaking, people care about saving more of their money, they care much less about how much money the company they are purchasing goods or services for is able to retain by providing less for the same (or more) price.

No, Apple is telling him to care about the reduction in material waste.

Is the iPhone as useful as before? So it’s the same price as before.

But now it's just the iPhone. It used to be the iPhone + earbuds and plug. It's objectively less product.

Who buys an iphone because of the included $0.50 plug and earbuds? Those products are mostly just straight e-waste at this point.

I don't see how people paying 1 grand from Apple are upset at not having $0.50 power brick. If it's a problem, you can get a USB A/USB C Amazon Basics dual bricks + braided lightning cable that will last forever and is objectively better quality.

$19 on the Apple Store.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD810LL/A/apple-5w-usb-po...

Granted, if you're enough of a sucker to buy these accessories directly, it's not Apple's fault; it's yours.

It’s not as useful because without a charger I can only use it until the battery dies.

It’s like selling a car without tires, saying it’s a big savings for the company while not changing the price.

It's expected that everyone has a charger these days. If you do not, you can buy one for a few dollars.

It's more like selling a kettle without water. It's expected most reasonable people will have their own water supply.

It's more like selling an electric kettle without a charger. People are already expecting to pay for water to fill a kettle, just like they pay for electricity to fill the battery.

First time buyers of iPhones aren't unreasonable. Being unreasonable is saying a trillion dollar company is fine to charge more for less.

If you're genuinely a first-time buyer and have no other electronics... then just buy a charger. They cost a few dollars. What's the problem? We need to reduce waste.

It will impact my assessment of product worthiness and feelings about the company in general.

If you lived in a small town with only a single bakery in it, would it not matter to you whether the bakery is selling you bread for a bit over their production costs, or 2x, or 5x those costs?

The word that's used to refer to mass market goods sold with large profit margins is "overpriced".

Prices aren't set by production costs though. They're set by the market.

In a working competitive market, prices are expected to be asymptotically approaching production costs.

But phones aren’t commodities. Different models do different things.

With the web and cross-platform app development tools, they essentially are.

> But why do you care what their costs are? What will you do with that information?

Make a purchasing decision?

There are value-conscious customers out there, many of which hang out on "deal hunting" sites even for luxury goods. Although the type of consumer willing to scrutinize the bill of materials in order to optimize the best specs per dollar is probably looking at Android.

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