Samsung may soon stop including charger with its phones

Rumors say that Samsung may stop including charging brick with the smartphone.

Before Samsung, Apple may be the first brand to initiate this move. As we know, if Apple institute any move then it’s very likely that other tech companies may copy the same. And the first brand to copy Apple’s move is Samsung (Maybe).

So it is reasonable to first talk about Apple and their move.

Tech specialists say that Apple’s move regarding this is to reduce E-waste.

In 2014, 60% of the E-waste is dumped into the landfills and 40% is recycled. In 2016, 44.7 million tons of E-waste is produced which is equivalent to building 4500 Eiffel towers.

So Apple is trying to reduce the electronic waste generated by these accessories i.e. chargers (and earphones) because almost everyone these days own a smartphone so chances are they already own a charger.

If they stop providing these accessories then only the people who need a charger or earphone will buy and the rest will use their existing one. By seeing the above graphs we can appreciate this move. But there is another story behind the scenes.

That is price-cut, as expected. Smartphones around the globe are sold in millions (quantities) so even if the manufacturing cost of the charger is less, brands can save a lot of money.

What do I think about this step?

Personally I think this is a good step in the long run but for now it may not be a great move because these days most people have 15–20W chargers and 50–60W chargers are yet to become common in the public.

So if brands start removing chargers when most people have chargers >=50W then it makes sense (Especially for Android users).

If Apple is removing the charger in the smartphone box then I have no complaints because Apple have been providing 5 Watt chargers since the launch of iPhone 4. I think most people already have at least 15W charger.

So I won’t hesitate to not see the whooping 5 Watt charger provided by Apple.