By David Balaban
Let’s talk about Apple not including the power adapter in newer iPhone models. They say they want to save money because of the expensive 5G and because they also want to protect the environment. I want to look at this situation from a different perspective. Read it to the end and you will understand my point and this article’s title.
At first glance, it may actually be a good thing to stop including chargers. Let us face it: at this point, you are wasting resources making more power adapters as everybody seems to already have them in 2020.
If you are buying a US$1,000 or $1,400 smartphone, chances are that is not your first smartphone. You probably have a power adapter from your iPhone 7, 8, 10, etc. I know that I have at least two or four of them myself.
Even most people who are not in the best financial condition have the newest phone now. How this happens is beyond my understanding, but people seem to always find a way to buy a new one. And when you buy a new iPhone, you probably do not throw away the charger.
Clever marketing or nickel-and-diming?
However, marketing is what interests me. Suppose I sell a product for a hundred dollars and seventy dollars of shipping. That is a rip-off. But if I sell that same product for two hundred dollars and free shipping, it is a deal. And if I give a five percent coupon, you might just tell all your friends what a nice guy I am. This is the way human psychology works.
When it comes to pricing, people are willing to pay more money, but they do not want the feeling of being nickeled-and-dimed. And when you are selling a phone that costs almost $1400 and you remove the charger from the box and you do not give a little check box that says do not include the charger and save $15 and help protect the environment, that is going to give people the feeling that they are getting nickeled-and-dimed.
It is okay to charge more money for a product or service, but you want to make sure you do it in a way where people do not feel like they are being nickeled-and-dimed. I think that this is interesting that they can stop including accessories or something and the product’s price is not going to be reduced in any way. You are getting less than you did before, and at the same time, the product price continues to go up with time.
I am old enough and remember when a flagship smartphone cost $600. Later it went to $800 and then a thousand, and now $1,400 for a flagship smartphone. So, removing an option that people used to have and not giving that little thing where it says: “We will give you ten bucks off” – really does seem like nickel-and-diming.
Expensive 5G
And what I find interesting is that one of the reasons they give: to cover very expensive 5G. This is bad! Apple could say: “Listen, we just want to save the environment,” or whatever their motive. But now that you bring up the expense of 5G, people are forced to look at the price of the product. Apple is directing the customers’ attention to the price of the product by mentioning expenses. People were not thinking about it, and now Apple put that in their heads. People may think: “This iPhone 12 costs $900 more than older models when they first came out. How is it that you are not able to fit a charger in there?”
Tender Tristar chip
One more thing that should be brought up is that iPhones have something called a Tristar chip. This is a communications chip and a charging chip. If you use any charger other than the one that came in the box, the Tristar chip tends to die. You kill this chip very easily. There are plenty of people who make their living by replacing Tristar chips in iPhones. It is a very common occurrence.
This really is an issue with a lot of iPhones as there is even an item that is being sold for over a hundred dollars called the Tristar tester. This chip dies often enough that it is profitable to create a tool that will cost over a hundred dollars and is needed solely to test that ship.
It’s ironic that Apple sells a phone that is overly sensitive to power surges, and at the same time, they are not going to include the charger with it.
Us to blame
Now we are getting to the point of this article. All these Apple actions really just show the confidence that they have in their marketing. Apple is able to do this. And they are able to say: “Listen, yes, the environment is important but you know 5G is expensive, and we are only charging $900 more for our flagship model than we were when the iPhone came out, and how are we going to afford the 5G without it.”
It really does show how they lean on their users to support them regardless of what they say or do.
What do people say if other companies do something weird? People will say: Well, we expect the company to release an explanation for this.” And with Apple, what people will do is they will think that Apple always wants to do the right thing.
And in case Apple does something weird, people think: “There must be a solid reason for it.” Instead of thinking, “I do not like what Apple did. Maybe they made a mistake.”
Today, a lot of people think: “Apple is a company that always innovates and does the right thing for the user experience. I (the user) must be wrong if I think that there is something bad with this.”
Some other people would go like: If you are spending $1,500 on a phone, why cannot you afford $15 for a charger? These products are not for poor people.”
But think about it. Apple tries to get your money all around the place. They are trying to charge you $1,000 to replace a fuse.
But still, there are things like: “You bought a $2,500 device, why does not your home insurance cover your MacBook? Are you poor? Why cannot you afford a $1,000 repair?”
Or another example. You do not have your data as the device got out of order due to some trivial malware, and the drive is encrypted. Apple does not want to sell the tools to get the data. And your latest backup was yesterday. And they go like: “Why was your latest backup yesterday? Why not today? Why did not you have that data on two different devices? Are you stupid?”
The general idea here is the following: it is not their fault that they create a chip that does not get sold to anybody so that if your chip dies, your entire computer is dead and your data is gone. It is your fault! It is always your fault!
And that is the thing that I want you all to think about.
I always find it interesting how people who are simply Apple customers actually tend to turn into Apple stockholders. These people act like they own shares of the company even when they do not.
I find it fascinating from just a business owner’s point of view. I would love to be able to create that sense of loyalty in my own customers. I am not saying that I would want to use it for nefarious reasons but the idea that if customers are having problems with my product or service – they are thinking that there is something wrong with them not me. This is a fascinating phenomenon of capitalism in general, and this very company in particular.
David Balaban is a computer security researcher with over 17 years of experience in malware analysis and antivirus software evaluation. David runs MacSecurity.net and Privacy-PC.com projects that present expert opinions on contemporary information security matters, including social engineering, malware, penetration testing, threat intelligence, online privacy, and white hat hacking. David has a strong malware troubleshooting background, with a recent focus on ransomware countermeasures.
