Last week, Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst skilled at predicting Apple's moves, said that the iPhone 12 will come without a charter or earphones bundled with it.

Many people could not believe it: how could Apple sell a phone without the means to drive it? But now there is a bit more evidence that this is one of the options Apple is considering.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple sent a survey to existing customers asking what they did with their old chargers. Explaining that it refers to the plug, not the cable, Apple gives respondents six choices:

Now, what does this mean: did Ming-Chi Kuo jump the gun with his report, or has Apple not made a final decision yet? Unlike hardware changes that are decided months in advance, pack-ins can be decided relatively late.

Now, there are two things to note. First, Apple has a precedent, and for those who want the company to keep the charger, it is a promising one: in 2016, Apple conducted a survey of MacBook Pro users, asking if they would use a headphone jack; four years later, all MacBooks still have a 3 .5 mm input jack because, after four years, all MacBooks still have a 3.5 mm input jack.

Second, the above survey was sent to users in Brazil and translated by 9to5Mac. This may mean that Apple is considering different options in different parts of the world. As a strategy, this makes sense: the iPhone has been a big seller in North America since 2008, but its popularity has grown in other regions over time. In other words, there is not the same level of Lightning cable saturation in every country as there is in the US.

And while it is easy to dismiss the move to cut cables and earbuds as anti-consumerist and a money-maker for companies that already charge aggressively high prices for their products, there is definitely a positive side to it. E-waste is a major problem around the world, and if Apple can reduce some of it without inconveniencing existing users, it seems sensible to do so.

The key is to get the balance right, and assuming this prediction comes true, we would expect Apple to have a low-cost solution for prospective buyers who do not yet have cable. Time will tell - albeit more than usual, as the release of the latest iPhone has been delayed from its usual September schedule thanks to ongoing problems with the coronavirus.