Kuo: Apple may not include EarPods headphones in iPhone 12 box to boost AirPods sales - 9to5Mac

According to the latest report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple may not include the wired EarPods headphones in the box of the iPhone 12. This would naturally drive sales of Apple’s second-generation AirPods, as customers would no longer be getting free headphones with their new phones.
Kuo suggests that Apple may heavily promote or discount the AirPods this holiday season, with no new models of AirPods or AirPods Pro expected until 2021.

Oh boy, I can hear people on Twitter already:

“Everyone already has headphones!”

“AirPods are that good, Apple is trying to get you to use something better.”

A conspiracy theory when the iPhone 7 released without a headphone jack was that Apple did it just to force you to buy AirPods. This was an out-there suggestion at the time, but if Apple is removing the Lightning headphones to drive sales of AirPods, well, that’s literally them doing what the theorists said in 2017.

I anticipate a healthy does of “actually…” in response to this post, but if Apple actually does this in the fall, I think it’s a bad look for the company and I don’t think it’s the right thing to do for the customer.

I also can’t help but cringe a little when a company who turned an $11 billion profit in a COVID-19 economy, has a $1.36 trillion market cap, and absolute market dominance with their iconic AirPods, feels the need to take things away from the consumer so they can sell more of that already iconic, flying off the shelves, still growing product.