A second analyst believes iPhone 12 won't ship with EarPods in the box

By Oliver Haslam
published

EarPods opened
EarPods opened (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Analyst Dan Ives says Apple won't ship EarPods wired earbuds in the iPhone 12 box this year.
  • This follows a similar report by Ming-Chi Kuo last month.
  • Ives also expects Apple to sell 85 million AirPods in 2020.

Last month saw analyst Ming-Chi Kuo report that Apple won't ship EarPods in iPhone 12 boxes later this year and now a second analyst has added their voice to the mix. Wedbush's Dan Ives says that his own checks show that no wired earbuds will be included in the box according to 9to5Mac.

Ives also notes that he expects Apple to shift as many as 85 million AirPods this year, a huge increase on the 65 million that shipped last year. That number is made all the more impressive considering Apple's retail outlets closed for weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Supply has also been hit and miss for some models, particularly the popular AirPods Pro.

In terms of the iPhone 12 itself, it's thought that the four new models will consist of a collection of 4G and 5G models.

Regarding the iPhone 12 itself, Wedbush continues to expect a four model lineup with a mixture of 4G and 5G models. There have been mixed reports recently as to whether all iPhone 12 models would support 5G networking, and more specifically at what bands and frequencies.

With that in mind we would likely see the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Max ship with 4G radios, leaving 5G to the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

2 Comments
  • Not a big deal for me. I've been using bluetooth even before Apple came out with AirPods
  • That would be fine if they’d revert to a standard 1/8” audio jack. My iPhone has lost all use as my podcast listening device because Bluetooth headphones have no place in my audio listening toolbox.