Comment on Phones may come without bundled USB cables in the future, if OEMs have their way
golli@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks agoBut wouldn’t it be equally valid to frame it the other way around that so far we have paid for them to be included, whether we like it or not?
I mean the price to manufacture them doesn’t change and companies werent charities before either.
Feels like in a functioning market this should just sort itself out. At least if it is transparent whether the phone includes accessories or not. People could factor this into their pricing decision.
The more interesting argument imo is the one another comment in this thread made, that this way muss matches between phone and charger/cable capabilities might happen. Which seems like a double edged sword. One the one hand manufacturers can advertise great charging speeds and people might not realize that only expensive chargers might be able to achieve those. On the other hand as the comment points out customers might not get the expected performance leading to frustration and negative associations with the particular brand.
Maeve@kbin.earth 3 weeks ago
But then you have it. Sell it, put it in another room, give it away. They should lower the phone price by the amount of whatever they charge for the charger. They should also give buyers the option to have it included or not, especially in this economy.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m honestly not sure (given the price the cable likely adds to the price of the device vs the quality/longevity of the cable) that I want it. Apple has been notorious for selling their charging cables at a premium while making them basically as cheaply as possibly. Other companies have literally made their brand on being better than the OEM cables and chargers you get with devices.
Other phone manufacturers aren’t exempt from the phone cable failure thing either. It’s crazy to me that they were allowed to sell such shoddy accessories in the first place.
When you add in the ways that countries are trying to cut down on e-waste I can’t say I’m surprised.
golli@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
My main point was that you pay for it regardless. All the things you list i can also do with a cable i simply purchase seperately. But the difference here is that i can either choose not to buy one, if i don’t need it. Or purchase a specific one e.g. a very long one, if i prefer that over the standard short one.
I doubt most manufacturers would lower the price when stopping to include them, but they might delay raising it for a while. In any case i think the economic mechanism (at least in an idealistic setting) is logical.
I don’t think it would logistically make sense to have versions with and without accessories included, since that instantly doubles the version count. But most if not all places that sell phones also sell cables/chargers. So in that way the choice already exists.
That said i think this line of thinking mostly works because we have standardized on USB-C for quite a while now, so the assumption that most people already have access to a cable is valid. This would be different if they’d require specific cables like e.g. my garmin watch does, which you wouldn’t normally have and that you’d likely purchase from the same manufacturer. In that case seperating them might have the opposite effect in making the price to consumers less transparent.
Also i could get behind the idea that not including something like a cable would require a prominent warning lable that “a cable or wireless charger (if applicable)” is required for longterm use.
Obi@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
BTW you can get Garmin to USB-C little adapters, they come in quite handy.
Maeve@kbin.earth 3 weeks ago
Because Walmart and dollar store cords are of equal quality?