Back in September we told you about O2’s plans to de-couple the HTC One X+ from its charging adapter in an effort to keep millions of unused adapters and cables out of landfills. In a statement by O2’s chief executive Ronan Dunne, the pilot program has been a huge success. O2 had projected that only 30 percent of customers would purchase the HTC One X+ would also opt for an extra charging adapter. However, the company was pleasantly surprise that the real-world number came in at only 18 percent.
O2 is calling on other UK service providers to start de-coupling chargers from their phones as well as O2 works to be charger-free by 2015.
The lesson for the industry from this pilot is that consumers are very receptive to the message that they can benefit the environment by avoiding the needless purchase of chargers. I would now like to see others taking similar steps, working with us as we aim to ensure all our handsets are sold charger-free by 2015.
While we applaud O2 and HTC for keeping an eye on the environment for us, we wish the two companies would pass on some of the cost savings to consumers or put aside the profits they make from selling chargers to green programs throughout the UK. It just rubs us the wrong way when a company plans on “going green” by padding its pockets at the expense of the consumer.
Source: The Verge
