The Mi 11 which was announced on Monday, 28th of December, as the first Snapdragon 888-powered phone in the world went on sale in China today. Based on the total sales revenue released by Xiaomi, it sold about 350,000 units. If you are wondering how many of those orders were of the bundle without a charger, it is just a small fraction.
Xiaomi announced that the Mi 11 will not ship with a charger by default, following in the footsteps of the iPhone 12 series which launched without chargers. However, unlike Apple, the Chinese giant provided the option for buyers who wanted a charger to get one for free, for a limited time. The bundle with a free charger is called the Special Set Edition and includes a 55W GaN charger that is worth ¥99 (~$15). Once the promotion is over (Xiaomi didn’t say when), the bundle with a charger will sell for ¥4099 (~$627) instead of ¥3999 (~$612).
Xiaomi has released a press statement on Weibo announcing that of all the orders made on the first-day sale, only 20,000 of them were for the “Green Edition” which is the unofficial moniker that has been given to the version without a charger and data cable. That number translates to less than 6% of the total devices sold.
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We are not surprised by the low figure, and personally, I believe that a significant percentage of the remaining 330,000 buyers who opted for the bundle with a charger do not actually need it but chose it so as to have an extra charger. I also believe that more buyers would have chosen not to go for a charger if they were getting a free gift such as an extra case or power bank instead.
In the press release, Xiaomi thanked these 20,000 buyers for choosing to make the world a better place in their own little way. It also revealed that it had considered not including a charger along with its phones as far back as 2015 but didn’t make the decision until now.
While Apple may be credited as the first manufacturer to kickstart the “no charger in the box” trend, it actually isn’t. The first-generation Motorola Moto G announced in 2013 didn’t ship with a charger in the box. However, while Apple and Xiaomi’s reason is to reduce e-waste, Motorola’s reason was to keep the price of the phone low. In the coming months, we expect more manufacturers to jump on the new trend and not include chargers with their phones.
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