“It’s official: there won’t be a headphone jack in the iPhone 7,” Timothy B. Lee writes for Vox. “The downsides are obvious: Almost everyone has headphones, speakers, and other gadgets based on the ubiquitous 3.5 mm headphone jack. Eliminating this connection could render these devices unusable, or at least force everyone to carry around an extra adapter. But Apple doesn’t care. Ditching the headphone jack is the next step in Apple’s relentless quest to make the iPhone — and all of its products — thinner, simpler, and more reliable.”
“Apple also believes that the conventional headphone jack has become a bottleneck to improvements in audio quality and headphone design,” Lee writes. “The shift to the Lightning connector will shift audio circuitry from the iPhone into the headphones themselves, creating the opportunity for third parties to experiment with new features and designs. And history may be on Apple’s side here. Customers invariably react badly to big changes in beloved products. But after a few months of grumbling, they usually accept the change and quickly forget about it.”
“Over the next year, tens of millions of people are going to buy an iPhone 7. All at once, they’re going to start shopping for new accessories designed to work with an iPhone 7. Dozens of companies are going to be rushing to create headphones, speakers, converters, and other accessories designed to work in a post-headphone-jack world,” Lee writes. “This is one of Apple’s key advantages compared to its Android rivals. When Apple announces a new standard, third-party companies know that millions of customers are virtually guaranteed to sign up, which gives the switch a sense of momentum and even inevitability.”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, Apple leads. All others follow at a distance. As usual.
Buh-bye, 3.5mm headphone jack – and good riddance! Dumping the 3.5mm anachronism for Lightning will deliver myriad improvements and innovations.
SEE ALSO:
Apple reinvents the wireless headphone with AirPods – September 7, 2016
Apple’s iPhone reveal: Death of antiquated 3.5mm headphone jack heightens anticipation – September 7, 2016
