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- Apple’s iPhone 12 won’t come with a wired headset in the box.
- The company made the announcement when unveiling its iPhone 12 line on Tuesday.
- The omission comes as Apple’s wireless AirPods have exploded in popularity in recent years and the company moves to make their packaging more sustainable.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Apple will no longer include its wired EarPod headphones in the box with its new iPhones, starting with the iPhone 12.
Apple executive Lisa Jackson announced the change Tuesday afternoon after announcing her new line of smartphones.
The move will allow Apple to create smaller, more sustainable iPhone packaging.
It’s a major shift in Apple’s history from including wired headphones in its wireless devices, back to the iPod, and continuing through to the 2019 iPhone 11. Even as Apple dropped the headphone jack from its flagship phones in 2016, the company continued including a version of their corded EarPods in the box with a lighting plug.
Those headphones don’t come in the box with this year’s iPhone.
The move comes as Apple’s AirPods wireless earbuds have gained popularity, becoming an increasingly critical part of the company’s product line. Apple’s wearable, home and accessories category, which includes AirPods and other products like the Apple Watch, has become a highlight of Apple’s earnings reports during quarters in which iPhone sales have plummeted. .
The growth of AirPods, along with the Apple Watch, has made the iPhone maker a leader in the wearable technology market. Apple accounted for 34.2% of the global wearable device market in the second quarter of 2020, outperforming rivals such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Samsung and Fitbit, according to International Data Corporation.
That growth will undoubtedly continue, if not accelerate, as Apple swaps out the wired headphones on its flagship iPhone models.
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