If it's not deleted by the iPhone 7, then it it will most likely be obsolete by the "iPhone 8." As much as I Would miss the jack, it would make sense for it to be deleted, as it is becoming antiquated with Bluetooth and wireless.
Bluetooth IS wireless and if by antiquated you are gauging "better" on audio quality, the antiquated is FAR superior to this "the future" option all other things being equal. Is there room for Bluetooth to improve? Of course, but the best it could ever be is quality analog output, something we already have coming out of the 3.5mm jack today. For bluetooth to be better gauged by audio quality, it requires better DACs or better headphones, either of which could be accomplished by building the same better DAC inside the phone and having the same "better headphones" plugged into the antiquated jack. There is no magical way for Bluetooth 20 (years or decades from now) to deliver better sounding audio than what can come out of the "antiquated" as any such improvements still come down to playing analog into our ears.
My opinion: if this is about improving the quality of sound, build a better DAC
inside the phone. Sound won't automatically get better because Apple "forces" bluetooth (or Lightning) upon us. It's the quality of the DAC inside or outside the phone that will drive most of the quality gains (or none therein). As is, all 3 options are already available in iPhone. Anyone who actually believes this "the future" superiority should- and can- already embrace the better "the future" option and enjoy it. Us fools who think 3.5mm is good/great/as good can keep foolishly clinging to the antiquated until our own ears help us hear the difference enough to
choose to embrace "the future."
It will be lighting headphones instead of 3.5 mm and there will probably be a lightning to 3.5 mm adapter for people who want to keep there old headphones
For what, an extra $49.99 to make the phone able to do what it used to do "out of the box"? Slippery slope there. Same kind of thinking could then rationalize Apple kicking out the battery and camera next. Both could be add-ons sold separately too. And speaking of "old", battery and camera technology is more antiquated than 3.5mm jack, so if the "old" needs to slide on down that slope, those 2 could really be fitting ejection followups.
And can we all really roll so easily with the idea of having a "tail" hanging out of the bottom of our iPhones? OR, if we buy Lightning phones, can we all really roll so easily to having another kind of adapter hanging out of the side of our Macs?
And if USB3 takes off on "everything else" as is likely such that maybe 3.5mm actually does fade out, do we really want to juggle several adapters to cover all bases with one set of headphones? OR, do we really want to lug along more than one set of headphones to be ready for the fractured mix of jacks we may encounter when we travel?
This is such a mess. None of us should be so quick to roll with this if it comes to be. Even the most diehard Apple fan simply must encounter occasions where they would want to plug their headphones into a non-lightning jack (look at your Macs right now). Then, think about the aggravation if you left the adapter at home... or lost it. It doesn't matter which way you go, you pretty much must lug along 1-2 adapters to be ready for all possibilities.
(A very common) Case in point: I'm enjoying the NBA finals. Just flew home on a new Delta jet and the game was on. As is, I unplugged my headphones from the ubiquitous 3.5mm jack in my iDevice and plugged it into the 3.5mm jack in their seat-back screen (they had no Lightning or USB3 jack available). That let me enjoy the game- video and audio- at 30,000 feet. While on that trip, I needed to use the headphones with my Mac and with the client's Windows machine (neither of which had Lightning or USB3). I could do that because both also came with the most ubiquitous jack of all such jacks. One set of headphones "just worked" with everything I encountered.
Now, put yourself in this "the future" mode. Own whatever kind of headphones you'll choose to own. What will it take to replicate the experience I just had in one short trip? Are you carrying multiple incarnations of headphones? Or are you carrying adapters? Delta doesn't offer bluetooth connections for seat-back screens (and they are not the only one without bluetooth-connection options). Are you watching the big game without audio because your jack doesn't fit the port used by that company not named Apple? That's where this ends up. The diehard, "Apple is always right" crowd will roll with anything Apple wants to do (I'm certain Apple could make the next iPhone out of razor blades and "we" would find some positive spin in all of the bleeding)... but I wonder if even "we" have thought through the ramifications of this in "our" typical uses for whatever kind of headphones "we" have now... or will soon be (re)buying.
