Sale of smartphones: the headphones in the boxes, it’s over!
In 2010, a law was passed in France to oblige manufacturers of mobile phones to provide those who bought their devices with a way of “ limit exposure of the head to radio frequency emissions during communications “. If this request is to be translated into normal language, it meant ” Please provide a hands-free kit in the box of your smartphones without discussing otherwise you will have problems. “. A very French mercantile exception since rare in the world was voted this kind of law. A good health initiative to safeguard the proper functioning of our brains but a real logistical headache for brands. In fact, it was necessary make special packaging for the French market since there was this particularity which made that. The subject of health and waves on the brain being no longer really topical, the law has changed and headphones are no longer mandatory in packaging.
Free-box kit
In fact, it was in November that the regulations changed and this obligation for builders has disappeared. A godsend for them who therefore jumped at the chance to adapt to it as quickly as possible. While some will continue to provide them, others have already announced that this will no longer be the case. Xiaomi has already removed them from these boxes since January 17. Apple will follow suit on January 24. Samsung, which already provides its Galaxy S21 without charger, should not be asked to lighten its packaging very soon.
After the power supply (charger), we can say goodbye to the headphones also from January 17 👀
From this date, Apple, Samsung and other manufacturers will be entitled to no longer include them. pic.twitter.com/aAkD7jdD0p— iMan Pro (@iManProYT) January 20, 2022
If France has changed its mind about the place of headphones, it is precisely for a question of ecology. The decision finds its justification in an approach to reduce the environmental footprint of digital technology. The presence of the utensil is increasingly less consistent with the needs of the user.
Of the order of the useless
It is true that 20 years ago, everyone bought their first smartphone and was very happy to have their hands-free kit delivered with it. The quality was often not there, but it had the advantage of existing. In 2022, when many people change phones every two or even every year, headphones often end up in drawers, stored as a recovery option that often never happens. And then, to come back to the mediocre quality of those supplied so far, the technology has greatly evolved and today you find some of very good quality, wireless, for less than 30 €. The solidity means that you can even keep them for several years. A miracle !
Tails: the government removes the hands-free kit “for ecology”.
Side face: the government “taxes” refurbished smartphones, by charging the private copying levy a second time. https://t.co/L2LemWeOhG
— Raphael Grably (@GrablyR) November 8, 2021
The hands-free kit therefore follows the same road to oblivion as chargers, also absent from the boxes of the latest models of high-end smartphones such as at Apple since the iPhone 12. Could this initiative be extended to other technologies? After all, living room computers often all have the same power supplies. All Lenovo laptops, for example, have the same charging block. You may even already have the cable at home to plug in a Nintendo Switch. Why provide it to you in the packaging if it is possible that you already have one? Why offer you a new one when we can sell it to you separately by using environmental law to justify its absence from the start?
Yes, we can see evil everywhere, it’s true. But hey, did you believe in Apple’s sales pitch around iPhone pallets and trucks? No, huh?
