[Text/Observer Net Long Yue] Apple's "5G Era" has finally arrived. In the early morning of October 14th, Beijing time, Apple held its second autumn conference and launched the new iPhone 12 series that support 5G communication, including iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max.
While 5G has become the biggest attraction, Apple's "Tucao Conference" has also arrived as scheduled. Apple announced that the new iPhone12 series will no longer support the operation of Lightning EarPods headsets and chargers, becoming one of the main slots.
Apple's vice president of environmental protection, policy and social planning Lisa Jackson (Lisa Jackson) pointed out that this move is out of environmental considerations, reducing carbon emissions and so on. Apple also explained that such packaging boxes would be lighter and smaller.
Video screenshots of Apple’s packaging box
is not only the new iPhone 12 series, but the American technology media "The Verge" also noticed that the existing iPhone models sold on Apple’s official website such as Phone XR, iPhone 11 and 2020 iPhone SE, etc., also The charger and earphone accessories are no longer equipped, instead only USB-C lightning data cable. Apple estimates that these changes will reduce carbon emissions by more than 2 million tons per year.
is now buying an Apple mobile phone, with only a charging cable in the package. Pictured from Apple’s official website.
reported that Apple’s approach has caused an uproar on the Internet. Some people think that Apple is considering increasing profits and reducing transportation costs, rather than protecting the environment.
Some netizens also directly ridiculed Apple's continuous "simplification" approach over the years:
2016 iPhone 7: no headphone jack.
2017 iPhone X: no home button.
2020 iPhone 12: There is no headset or charger in the box.
2021: There is no iPhone in the box.
picture from social media and
Apple's "old rival" Samsung also went online to tease that Apple's 5G is late, and also brought a wave of goods for its 5G mobile phones. Samsung said on Twitter: "Some people have only said Hi to Speed now, and we have been friends with Speed for a while." The slogan of Apple's press conference happened to be "Hi, Speed".
Samsung ridiculed Apple
Apple’s promotional picture "Hi, Speed"
However, Apple's 5G mobile phone is indeed "half a beat". After Huawei, OPPO, VIVO, Xiaomi, ZTE and other domestic brands almost all launched 5G mobile phones, Apple CEO Cook announced at this press conference: iPhone is about to enter the 5G era.
Actually, the topic of when Apple will support 5G began as early as the end of 2017. When the new Apple iPhone 11 was released last year, speculation about Apple's launch of a 5G mobile phone reached its peak. However, Observer.com once reported that Apple lags behind its peers in launching 5G mobile phones, which is actually "pitted" by upstream suppliers.
In February 2019, Intel revealed that the company’s 5G baseband chip has no hope of appearing in mobile phone products on the market this year. And the baseband chip is the "scrap" of Apple products. Starting with the iPhone 7 in 2016, Apple introduced Intel technology and gradually got rid of the shackles of Qualcomm's patents. There is still a gap between Intel baseband technology and Qualcomm. Intel, which announced that "5G baseband chips will be delivered in the second half of 2019" last year, suddenly "rejected". At that time, Bloomberg and other media predicted that Apple's 5G mobile phone might be released in 2020.
Last year, in response to why the iPhone 11 did not support 5G, Cook put forward three main reasons: First, "the entire market was not mature enough in terms of infrastructure or chips"; second, "5G is still at a very early stage globally. The third is that Apple’s goal has never been to grab the first place and start.
Cook Video screenshot
After Apple's 5G mobile phone conference, the market effect seemed unsatisfactory. When the conference drew to a close, Apple's stock price fell more than 3%. When the three major US stock indexes closed down that day, Apple also followed the broader market and closed down 2.65%.
This article is an exclusive manuscript from Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.
