02 customers happy to forego new chargers

100 million unused chargers clog up Britain’s cupboards

O2 say 82% of it customers are happy to buy a phone without a charger, after a successful “Charger out of the box” pilot sold the HTC One X+ with just a USB cable

O2 is hoping to revolutionise the mobile phone market, as well as help the environment,with its “Charger out of the box” scheme, which, as you probably guessed, removes the charger from the phone box.

The UK's second largest mobile provider has been conducting a trial since October in which it sold HTC's flagship One X+ handset sans the charger.

However they were generous enough to provide a USB to micro USB cable so all your other USB charging plugs should work fine. According to the results of the pilot, 82% of consumers did not buy a charger after learning their shiny new device did not have one included.

Initial expectations by O2 predicted 70% of people would be happy to buy a phone without a charger and not feel the need for one and with these better than expected they hope all networks will go charger free by 2015.

Ronan Dunne, O2 CEO said, "The results of the trial demonstrate a clear willingness among consumers to consider and respond to the environmental argument for taking a phone charger-free. I now hope that as a result of this study the rest of the industry will now consider joining us in our campaign to take chargers out of the box for good."

O2 state that there are 30 million new phones sold in the UK every year and if all these were packaged without chargers there would be a massive 24 million less having to be produced. O2 also believe there around 100 million unused chargers in the UK.

So, would you be happy if your expensive new phone came without anything to juice it up? Or have you got enough chargers clogging old drawers anyway? Let us know in the comment section below.

T3 Online

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