Apple decided to leave out their phone charger as they sell the new iPhone 12. People went nuts and the meme community had a field day for about a week. In normal human terms, that week is like several hundred years' worth of #lols at Apple's expense. But who really got the last laugh?

Apple lost up to $81 billion in market value as shares tumbled 4% following the iPhone 12 launch. All because they wanted to exclude a phone charger. Other brands jumped on the bandwagon to quickly suggest how they offer so much more because their prices INCLUDE a charger. Yep, that is the big draw apparently when what consumers really want is an excellent display and a feature laden camera above all else.

1 billion cellphones go into production annually. While phones eventually become outdated, chargers typically do not. So each device has a charger which just keeps piling up, somewhere. Starts from an unused drawer at home and ends up likely in a landfill. Apple's logic is that by excluding a charger they are reducing the carbon footprint. They are friends of the planet and the polar bears who, let's face it, don't like the warm weather much and would tweet against it if they knew how to. 

The glitch in this pro-environment move is that Apple's devices generally use the proprietary Lightning port which requires its own cable. Everyone else has adopted the USB-C. Only last year's Pro models from Apple got the USB-C chargers.

Apple shipped more than 200 million phones last year which means a lot of Lightning cables. If they really want to reduce waste, adopting the USB-C would be a start. Which is likely their stumbling, cautious direction anyways with other manufacturers following suit.

An average cellphone user replaces their unit once every 18 months. Phones, especially flagships last much, much longer. If you scour the second hand and refurbished market you will see phones three generations old still making the rounds. To put that into context, we generate around 40 million tons of electronic waste every year, worldwide.Only 12.5% of that is recycled with 85% going to landfills and incinerators. Reusing older, existing chargers is a small yet good step forward.

Remember the 3mm headphone jack? No one is really missing that anymore. No one will miss a non-bundled charger either. You just have to wait for the memes to pass.