Ecology will also have won out over stickers, the famous stickers that Apple offered when purchasing one of its products. After the headphones, the power adapter, or the charging cable (in the AirPods 4), Apple is removing a new element from the box. This time, it is the iPhone 16 that sees the contents of its box trimmed.
The end of stickers
If you buy an iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, or iPhone 16 Pro Max, you can look hard, but you won’t find the stickers with the Apple logo. According to an internal communication shared with Apple Store teams and obtained by 9to5Mac the company led by Tim Cook explains that iPhone 16 will no longer come with stickers by default. However, customers can request them from the seller when purchasing an iPhone 16 directly from an Apple Store.
In case you’re wondering, resellers and carrier partners won’t have any Apple stickers to offer either, online or in-store.
The change is part of Apple’s ongoing efforts to meet its environmental goals, including becoming carbon neutral by 2030. Apple highlighted during its “It’s Glowtime” keynote that the packaging for the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro is now made entirely of fiber, moving closer to the company’s goal of eliminating all plastic from its packaging by next year.
While this marks the end of a tradition, it’s not a surprise. Earlier this year, the Apple Vision Pro launched without stickers, and the latest iPad Pro M4 and iPad Air M2 models, released in May, also didn’t include them in their packaging.
Beyond ecology, Apple is also thinking about its margins. If the price does not change, at least on the iPhone side, this allows either to amortize the production cost of an expensive new product, or to improve the company’s profits.
Who among you ordered the iPhone 16? Given the still acceptable delivery times the day after pre-orders, it is likely that sales will not be as good as usual.
