Yes — Please Include Fewer Chargers and Cables in the Box

(Oops, I forgot to hit publish on this one last week..!)

A detail about the new MacBook Pro in the EU (and also here in Norway, the UK, and Switzerland, even though we’re not in the EU) is that the laptop doesn’t come with a charger by default. The reason is a regulation that’s coming that says that companies like Apple need to provide users with the option not to get a charger.

But, still, amazing stuff continues to happen in Europe.

— Daring Fireball

What I find amazing is how cleanly John Gruber is able to put 100% of the blame on the EU, and 0% on Apple, in cases like this… I assume the bad stuff¹ he’s talking about here is EU users not getting a charger for free. But absolutely nothing is stopping Apple from doing just that in the EU as well! They only need to include an option of not getting the charger. Apple could even keep all the money from users selecting this option! (Nick Heer also points to a lot of bad coverage of this.)

I might be wrong, but I can’t remember Gruber chastising Apple for removing the chargers from iPhones, or more recently: the cable from AirPods Pro 3… And I agree with this! So, I’d rather focus on why I actually think all of these are good moves!

My optimal future

By default, I don’t think devices like this should come with any cables or chargers. But as part of the check-out process it should be trivial to add what you need — for instance with the MacBook Pro:

1. Charging cable?
   • None
   • MagSafe
   • 2 m USB-C
   • 3 m USB-C
2. Charger?
   • None
   • 70 W
   • 96 W
3. Colour?
   • White
   • Black

These should be sold at “bundle prices”, and be cheaper than if you were to buy them alone. In Apple’s case, this would also increase the amount of competition their chargers and cables face. So maybe they’ll stop being so inferior to third-party options.

Products also need clear markings for the minimum and maximum/optimal number of watts — so people don’t think their 5 W phone charger can charge their Mac.²

Why?

Should all Mac Minis come with a bundled Magic Keyboard? I mean, you do need a keyboard to use the computer. Of course not! Perhaps the user prefers a different kind of keyboard, or already has one? It would also increase the amount of waste, and of course, the price. (Whether Apple would eat this cost increase, or pass it on to the consumer, would be up to them.) However, I do think Apple (or a third-party re-seller) should make it easy for users to get a good price on a keyboard when buying the Mac.

I don’t see why chargers and cables should be any different: I already have (or would buy) both keyboards, cables and charges that are better than what Apple makes. So I shouldn’t be forced to buy theirs, just to put them in a drawer.

Another, even more similar, example is when I bought this great 3-in-1 travel charger 🖇️ for my wife for Christmas: It came bundled with a 2 m USB-C cable and a decent (but rather bulky) 30 W charger. What I did, before wrapping it, was to swap out the charger for a more compact Anker charger and a 3 m cable 🖇️. Here, I wouldn’t be mad if the listing just said:

• No cable and charger (USB-C to USB-C and minimum 30 W needed)
• +€25 Include 2 m cable and 30 W charger

At the time, I believe I paid about €35 for the new charger and cable. So I’d rather get the choice to pay €15 more to get what I wanted, instead of either having to settle for something I didn’t want or pay €35 more and throw a cable and charger in a drawer.³

My precious

This is my current, carefully curated, charging bundle I carry around in my backpack. A 65 W charger (could be more), with the following cables:

• 3 m USB-C (black, braided),
• MagSafe (white-ish, braided — not needed, but nice),
• 1 m Lightning (white, non-braided),
• and (sadly) Micro-USB (black, non-braided).

Different colours and materials make it easy to find the one I want!

Less forced bundling, please!

I don’t mind being able to bundle stuff to get a good deal. But forced bundling is just annoying, and sometimes problematic. And while looking up the Anker charger you can get today that’s closest to the 30 W one I got earlier, I saw another example: This 45 W charger 🖇️ is great — but why can’t I get it without a 2 m USB-C to USB-C cable??

What if I want a longer cable? Or a braided one? Or nothing at all because I already have what I need?

When I bought my AirPods Pro 2, Apple gave me a nice, white, braided 1 m USB-C cable. However, I haven’t used it once, so this has been a complete waste.

Just like freedom, free stuff isn’t free! We have to bring down the amount of waste, so let’s buy just the cables and chargers we need — and then we can also get the sizes, lengths, colours, and materials we want.