Thoughts on Apple's “Hi, Speed” event: the iPhone 12 lineup, camera differences, missing chargers and earbuds, focus on 5G and Verizon CEO's cameo, more
Last month's “Time Flies” event for the Apple Watch Series 6 and new iPad Air was about an hour long; this week's “Hi, Speed” event ran just a bit longer at 70 minutes.
Context & Ripple Effects
The event landed roughly where the run-up predicted: four new iPhones with an iPad Pro-like design and 5G were the core of it, while items like AirTags that previews floated stayed offstage. The timing also fits Apple's fall sequencing — with Apple Silicon Macs pushed to a separate November event, this show belonged entirely to the iPhone and its network story.
What distinguished “Hi, Speed” was less the hardware than the framing: 5G carried the narrative, to the point that Verizon's CEO appeared on Apple's stage, and the lineup ships without chargers or earbuds in the box. Daring Fireball's read on the camera differences across the four models rounds out the practical buying questions.
First-order effects
- iPhone 12 buyers get no charger or earbuds included, shifting those purchases to sold-separately accessories from day one.
- Verizon gains marquee association with the first 5G iPhone lineup via its CEO's cameo, tying its network marketing directly to Apple's launch window.
Second-order effects
- Third-party accessory makers become the default supplier for power adapters and wired earbuds that previously rode along in the box, opening a replacement market Apple itself vacated.
- Carrier involvement in iPhone launches deepens around 5G, pressuring rival carriers to negotiate comparable positioning for their own 5G pitches.
Third-order effects
- If the charger-free box holds, 'device only' packaging becomes the industry norm, decoupling phone sales from bundled accessories and reframing e-waste and cost arguments in future regulatory discussions.
- Phone launches increasingly become joint hardware-and-network events during the 5G cycle, giving carriers a recurring seat on stage that didn't exist in prior generations.
The trend: Flagship phone launches are becoming 5G-era co-productions between device makers and carriers, while in-box accessories are stripped out as a margin and packaging decision other vendors will be pushed to copy.