14 June 2007 At the end
of June Apple will launch its first major
product since Steve Jobs 'A Greener Apple'
statement. So how green will the iPhone
be?
Like everyone else we don't know what's
in the iPhone yet. It debuts June 29th.
But we already know how green a phone can
be. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola have
both removed some of the worst chemicals
from their phones and identified extra toxic
chemicals they intend to remove in the future
-- even beyond the minimal legal requirements.
Nokia and Sony Ericsson have a global take-back
policy for their phones and accept their
responsibility to reuse and recycle the
phones they manufacture. That saves resources
and helps prevent old phones ending up as
e-waste dumped in Asia.
"There's already phones that do this"
Due to our successful Green my Apple campaign
Steve claimed: "Apple is ahead of,
or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors"
on environmental issues. This is Apple's
chance to prove it.
To be only as good as Nokia and Sony Ericsson,
Apple should:
Not use toxic chemicals like brominated
flame retardants and Polyvinyl Chloride
in the iPhone.
Offer for free worldwide take-back for the
iPhone.
Analysts are projecting between 4 to 10
million iPhones will be sold in the first
year. This is a big chance for Apple to
avoid the use of a lot of toxic chemicals.
And how soon will those 4 to 10 million
iPhones be made obsolete by Apple's next
big innovation? Because millions of them
will be cast aside as old gadgets when the
latest arrives. Will Apple offer global
options to prevent them from becoming e-waste?
Some might point out that the iPhone has
already been made and shipped so it's too
late to make any changes. But Apple uses
the same supplier (Foxconn) as Nokia for
parts of its iPhone. So theoretically Apple
could have specified parts free of the worst
toxic chemicals from a supplier already
meeting Nokia's strict chemicals requirements.
Carbon calling
What will Apple do to address the extra
energy iPhones will consume? Nokia and Motorola
are focussing on making their phone chargers
more efficient; Nokia is developing user
warnings to unplug when the phone is charged.
Will the iPhone have a user replaceable
battery, to prevent iPhones with broken
batteries become premature e-waste?
Dell vs Apple: Eco-Rumble in the Electronics
Jungle
If Steve was serious that Apple was already
making environment considerations a priority
then the iPhone launch will be the first
chance to prove it with a greener product.
With Steve and Michael Dell seemingly publicly
slugging it out for the title of greenest
computer company, maybe Steve will land
the next green blow by launching a phone
even greener than those currently on the
market. This is his chance to demonstrate
a major Apple product that has been designed
with environmental concerns as a priority.
There's a lot of people expecting nothing
less from Steve.
