WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.040 Apple made waves when they announced in 2020 that they would no longer be including a power brick 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:09.760 in the box with the iPhone 12, but it isn't just Apple that's seemingly being cheap. 00:00:09.760 --> 00:00:13.520 Lots of smaller electronics these days aren't coming with wall words either. They'll probably 00:00:13.520 --> 00:00:18.720 give you a USB cable for charging, but to actually plug it into the wall, you'll have to BYOB. 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:25.280 Bring your own brick. So what exactly is behind this trend other than, you know, the fact that Apple 00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:31.200 is able to charge the same princely sum for its i-stuff even without including a charger, 00:00:31.200 --> 00:00:35.840 and therefore make an even larger profit. And don't kid yourselves, that is part of the reason. 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:39.520 Obviously, a charger doesn't cost nearly as much to produce as a smartphone, 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:45.120 but when you're making that many of them, the costs add up, especially for a company like Apple, 00:00:45.120 --> 00:00:49.520 which actually does engineer its chargers to quite a high standard. 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:54.320 But before you flame in the comment section and accuse me of being an Apple fanboy, 00:00:54.320 --> 00:01:00.080 teardowns done of iPhone chargers have shown they're pretty reliable, well-made pieces of kit. 00:01:00.080 --> 00:01:04.880 And Apple isn't alone in this, as other phone manufacturers have typically included chargers 00:01:04.880 --> 00:01:09.280 of a better quality than generic ones you might find on an Amazon or Aliexpress. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.880 Better chargers take a little more money to make than cheap ones that might 00:01:12.880 --> 00:01:18.640 break easily or crap out after just a few months of use. And even though Apple might only be making 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:23.120 1% more profit on their phones by not including power bricks, according to one estimate, 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:28.720 that's still a huge amount of money when you consider Apple made nearly $29 billion in profit 00:01:28.720 --> 00:01:34.080 during the first fiscal quarter of 2021. Now, from Apple's perspective, the decision kind 00:01:34.080 --> 00:01:39.200 of makes sense when you think about how many old, but perfectly good chargers there are 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:44.000 just floating around out there from our past. Think about all of the USB wallwards you've 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:49.040 accumulated over the years that came with your phone or your tablet or your Wi-Fi-enabled 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:55.040 In fact, around a million tons of chargers are manufactured every year. 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:58.960 That's like having 100 Eiffel towers made of chargers. 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:05.280 Unsurprisingly, this has led to pressure from consumers and governments to reduce the amount 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:09.600 of electronic waste floating around out here. So lots of gadget makers are now assuming that 00:02:09.600 --> 00:02:14.880 you've either got an old brick laying around to spare or that you've got power strips or even 00:02:14.880 --> 00:02:19.840 full-on outlets that have USB ports built into them, which have become more common over the past 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:23.840 few years. Apple has even come out and claimed part of the reason that they don't want to dish the 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:29.040 Lightning connector in favor of USB-C is that it would create a tremendous amount of e-waste after 00:02:29.040 --> 00:02:33.680 people throw out their old Lightning accessories that would no longer work with their newer Apple 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:38.000 devices should they make that change. Of course, the e-waste problem is a lot bigger than just 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:42.800 how many extra wallwards we have. Plenty of companies are making gadgets with rechargeable 00:02:42.880 --> 00:02:46.880 batteries that are sealed up inside the device, making them very difficult to replace 00:02:46.880 --> 00:02:51.600 and potentially inducing consumers to throw them away sooner than the otherwise might. 00:02:51.600 --> 00:02:55.920 And many of these devices are made by the same companies that make smartphones, 00:02:55.920 --> 00:03:01.840 think Apple's AirPods, for example. There's also the snag that an older one or two amp charger 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:06.000 might technically work just fine with a brand new device, but many new phones support fast 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:10.720 charging, which you'd need to buy a new adapter to take advantage of, either from a third party 00:03:10.720 --> 00:03:15.920 or directly from your device's manufacturer. And you guessed it, selling it separately makes them 00:03:15.920 --> 00:03:21.920 more money. Yeah. But regardless of how much companies are actually concerned about the 00:03:21.920 --> 00:03:26.960 environment and waste versus just being on a quest for profit, it looks like not getting a 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:31.680 charger in the box, either with phones or other gadgets like headphones, is a trend that isn't 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:36.800 going away anytime soon. I just hope they don't do the same with the cable, but let's not give them 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:42.640 any ideas. You know what? I actually saw a charging pad that didn't have a wall wart, like 00:03:42.640 --> 00:03:47.120 it's required to function. The thing is for charging, it must be in the wall to work and it 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:50.800 didn't come with it. It was insane. So thanks for watching guys. If you liked this video, 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:54.960 hit like, hit subscribe and hit us up in the comment section with your suggestions for topics 00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:56.640 that we should cover in the future.