It's called a BOM reduction, Tim Cook has to make phones more profitable year on year, one way to do that is to reduce the cost it is to manufacture them. Smal

It's called a BOM reduction, Tim Cook has to make phones more profitable year on year, one way to do that is to reduce the cost it is to manufacture them. Small savings add up. The environmental excuse is just PR, they still have to put cables and chargers in boxes and ship them half way across the world. If they really cared about waste they'd make their hardware last longer, my Powerbook G4's power cable still works fine 18 years later and isn't frayed. Every modern Macbook power cable I have it frayed and dangerous just months after purchase requiring 2-3 units to be bought over the life of the laptop to remain safe.