I do not buy for a second that environmental concerns were Apple's primary reason for removing the power brick and the lightning headphones from the box, though

I do not buy for a second that environmental concerns were Apple's primary reason for removing the power brick and the lightning headphones from the box, though I think the decision makes sense. The lighting headphones are more of a pain than they are worth and most consumers have enough five watt power bricks floating around if they really need one. From a PR and messaging stand point environmentalism was really the most elegant explanation without diving into market research on consumer behavior and component costs. The Verizon 5G presentation and the opaque pricing are real head-scratchers. Why include Verizon at all? They are in last place in the US on 5G deployment and 5G is going to be largely meaningless for most consumers. So to have Verizon out there and then act like 5G is a huge deal says to me that they felt like they did not have enough to talk about with their new phones. It is faster, the cameras are better, they redesigned it, but it is kind of a mashup of the old design and new design, nothing revolutionary. They went hard on 5G because it is all they really have new to talk about. Verizon was needed filler and likely signed some kind of co-marketing deal to be on stage. I would expect a lot of iPhone-centric Verizon commercials over the next year. And as far as the subsidy, I think it is fine to have carriers subsidize phone costs for their consumers, but $30 is peanuts on a $700+ phone and not worth any confusion or ill will generated by those who thought they were getting an unlocked phone for $699 as advertised.