'iPhone 12' predicted to ship without EarPods, will boost AirPods sales
Ming-Chi Kuo has chimed in on the "iPhone 12," and he thinks that Apple will leave out the EarPods accessory -- a move which will ultimately boost AirPods adoption by consumers.
AirPods Pro
In a note to investors, TF Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo says that he believes that Apple will leave out the $29 Lightning EarPods when the "iPhone 12" ships to consumers. He isn't specific as to why Apple will take the action, but does note that it may dovetail with a promotion for AirPods of some sort.
Furthermore, Kuo sees AirPods demand in the short-term waning, because of larger economic conditions. This is only temporary, though, as he sees growth on the year.
Previously, he predicted about 85 million sets of AirPods shipping. He now sees about 94 million shipping on the year in total, across the entire range of devices.
On April 19, Jon Prosser stated that Apple had a third-generation AirPods refresh ready to go, contrary to what Kuo believes. On April 24, sources predicted that a new AirPods model would incorporate noise cancellation technology. Impact on the battery could be offset by Apple using the manufacturing process improvement to save space internally to to fit extra battery capacity.
This new report from Kuo doesn't mention health monitoring features coming. The AirPods have been long-rumored to get extra health features, however they may be planned for some later generation.
Kuo still sees no refresh of AirPods until 2021. While he does say that the market is expecting a refresh, he believes that the new Apple product is a set of Beats, and not AirPods.
AirPods Pro
In a note to investors, TF Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo says that he believes that Apple will leave out the $29 Lightning EarPods when the "iPhone 12" ships to consumers. He isn't specific as to why Apple will take the action, but does note that it may dovetail with a promotion for AirPods of some sort.
Furthermore, Kuo sees AirPods demand in the short-term waning, because of larger economic conditions. This is only temporary, though, as he sees growth on the year.
Previously, he predicted about 85 million sets of AirPods shipping. He now sees about 94 million shipping on the year in total, across the entire range of devices.
On April 19, Jon Prosser stated that Apple had a third-generation AirPods refresh ready to go, contrary to what Kuo believes. On April 24, sources predicted that a new AirPods model would incorporate noise cancellation technology. Impact on the battery could be offset by Apple using the manufacturing process improvement to save space internally to to fit extra battery capacity.
This new report from Kuo doesn't mention health monitoring features coming. The AirPods have been long-rumored to get extra health features, however they may be planned for some later generation.
Kuo still sees no refresh of AirPods until 2021. While he does say that the market is expecting a refresh, he believes that the new Apple product is a set of Beats, and not AirPods.
Comments
it would be a sticker on the iPhone box so you can redeem voucher when purchased if you want.
The iPhone selling price would be the same with or without them IMO. They end up as a freebie in the box. It makes perfect sense that if hardware revenues are decreasing a bit that those free things get removed and paid things take their place, but you won't be paying less for your next Phone because they took cheap earbuds out of the box. The market will bear the same price with or without them.
Now there’s a pile of them in a drawer. I even gave some away.
I certainly wouldn’t miss them if they weren’t in the box with my iPhone 12.
Eventually, iPhone will get a USB-C port.
It's true that many people already have multiple spare and unused earbuds, charger bricks and cables lying around. Those things are used (or not used) and worn out at different rates than the phones themselves. It would make sense both financially and from an environmental standpoint to start separating those from the phone package, and instead offer discount vouchers with a new iPhone that can be applied toward the purchase of those other things separately. Some percentage of the vouchers will go unused, roughly commensurate with the number of EarPods that are tossed directly into junk drawers now. When you think of it on the macro level of the millions of phones sold every year, that represents a significant amount of waste that can be removed from the system. It is very unlikely that the price of an iPhone would be reduced. Removing the cost of including a set of earbuds with every phone would, however, make it possible to incrementally increase the value of what goes into the phone itself, even accounting for use of discounts towards peripherals, profit, etc.
Apple swaps AirPods with new low-end end AirPods.
Kidding. We've been donating ours.