iPhone 12 might not have a charger in the box according to Kuo

There has been a lot of speculation about Apple's new products and schedules that have been thrown into disarray thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. The show will go on, fortunately for Apple fans, but the company may be making a few changes to keep things from going overboard. That will mostly be due to the increasing prices of its high-end devices thanks to increasingly powerful components, like 5G modems in the iPhone 12. Apple's solution? Take out almost everything from the iPhone's box.

The iPhone 12 series could be Apple's most expensive smartphones yet and that will be thanks to the addition of 5G support. Given the times, Apple knows it would be fighting an uphill battle of what are already luxurious prices even without 5G. According to analyst Ming-chi Kuo, Apple's cost-saving measures would be to further simplify what will ship inside the iPhone 12 box.

Apple already removed the Earpods last year since it was pushing for Bluetooth audio and pushing out the 3.5mm headphone jack. This year, it will reportedly not ship even a charger inside the box, leaving only the iPhone 12 itself and a Lightning to USB-C cable.

The absence of a charger will have quite significant side effects beyond keeping prices from going through the roof. Apple will most likely play it as an environmental advantage to reduce e-waste, though that won't stop people from buying new chargers for their new iPhones, especially with what's coming. It could also boost the wireless charging market a bit since buyers might be considering getting a wireless charger anyway while they're at it.

This change would almost be ironic considering Kuo says that Apple is switching to 20-watt chargers and ceasing production of older and less powerful chargers. This new charger will ship with new iPads, which the analyst says will ship in the form a 10.8-inch iPad later this year and an iPad Mini with a larger size in the first half of 2021.