Apple Will Still Include a Lightning to Headphone Jack Adapter With This Year's iPhones, Says Barclays

[MacBergin]

Keep it or don't I don't care anymore. Since getting my Beats Solo3's my old headphones are for the dust bunnies. I was not a fan of bluetooth but once I started using the Beats I was hooked. The battery life is amazing and the range is incredible, unlike any bluetooth device i have ever used. I wish Apple would add the W1 chip into the Beats Pill.

 

[Rob_2811]

People are lazy and myopic by nature and sometimes, you need a company with the influence and the mentality like Apple to help effect meaningful changes and push the industry forward.

It's the same logic as when Apple blocked flash on ios. If it were up to people to choose, they would have simply stuck with a crappy existing standard, and HTML 5 would never have gotten the big break they needed to take off.

Apple drew their line in the sand and forced consumers and content makers to make a choice. And the rest as we know it is history.

Sometimes, you cannot have a new world order without first doing away with the current one.

Well this just isn't true really is it? The adoption of HTML 5 would've happened anyway and Jobs was very premature with his insistence that Flash wasn't required to view web content in 2010.

The all out ban Apple issued on Flash deployment via an updated developer agreement in 2010 ended up with a big slice of humble pie being eaten later on that year when they allowed the use of the Adobe packager for iOS again after backlash from developers.

Apples influence on the industry, both mobile and desktop, is outsized given its marketshare. Unfortunately a lot of Apples fanbase (for want of a better term) and even Apple themselves seem to get a disproportionate sense of their influence. The Mac Pro is a great example, Apple decided they were going to go with a duel GPU set up for the Mac Pro but the industry wasn't interested. Result? Apple chowing down on a big ol' slice of humble pie again. Same thing happened with Firewire on the Mac, the wider industry didn't care and it was later dropped.

See people will move on when it makes sense to them not when it makes sense to Apple. The industry will move in the direction that makes sense not the way Apple wants it to.

 

[Bacillus]

Which completely defeats the whole point of removing the headphone jack in the first place.

For you to understand the shortcomings of the lightning/3,5" dongle, they need to completely deplete your iPhone's battery, throw your Airpods in the sewer, and offer you free Spotify for a single night
(and then ask which track you liked best...)

 

[Abazigal]

For you to understand the shortcomings of the lightning/3,5" dongle, they probably need to deplete your iPhone's battery, throw your Airpods in the sewer, and then offer you free Spotify for a single night.

And I still wouldn't go back to wired headphones.

These are the headphones I own. Haven't touched them since I got my Airpods.

 

[Bacillus]

And I still wouldn't go back to wired headphones.
These are the headphones I own. Haven't touched them since I got my Airpods.

But this topic is about those actually using them instead of keeping them around as unwanted decoration. So happy hiking.
But let's not behold you to share your expertise on the 87 other dongle's you don't use - it seems there are quite enough of them.

 

[Beenblacklisted]

No wireless charging...

And I still won't buy an iPhone.

yea your not missing anything, new ios 10, is only made for iphone 6s and above anything else and you have to incur stalling, pauses, sluggish performance, and a forced change to the file structure from previous ios versions, which once done cannot be undone.

Many people here are missing the larger picture

Many are thinking about the past, the current day, and maybe a couple of years into future. Apple is planning much, much further than that. They have at least the next couple years worth of iPhones in some type of prototype form. They are throwing around designs for iPhones 3 or 4 years out, and they certainly have ideas and dreams for iPhone models beyond that.

Somewhere in that future there is an iPhone that is just a perfectly smooth iconic slab with a screen on front and a logo on back. No ports, no home button, no switches, no holes. The home button will be under the screen. Charging will be wireless and will work without sitting on a mat. Headphones are going wireless now. Syncing has already been wireless for some time.

They simply cannot do all that at once--look at the uproar over the headphone jack. There would be similar uproar over the ringer switch, volume buttons, etc., especially the Lightning port--people will absolutely rail against removing that. But make those changes over time? We will adapt and adjust. Another reason Apple can't do all this at once is simply that the technology isn't there yet.

So to get to that iconic vision without cataclysmic disruption to the users, Apple will remove one thing at a time, slowly over the years. Last year was the headphone jack. This year or next will be the home button. Some time after that, the other switches and buttons. Then the Lightning port. And eventually, if they can figure it out, the mic and speaker holes too.

Removing the headphone jack is part of that vision. People who claim the move is so Apple can make money on dongles and Airpods have no imagination or foresight.

How much did BGR pay you to write that?

 

[ActionableMango]

underwater features, oversized haptic engines and other marketing

Did you mean to reply to me? I didn't mention any of those things.

However, I do think waterproofness is a genuinely useful feature. I'm surprised that anyone wouldn't think so.

 

[milo]

Just bring back the damn port.

 

[Bacillus]

Did you mean to reply to me? I didn't mention any of those things.

However, I do think waterproofness is a genuinely useful feature. I'm surprised that anyone wouldn't think so.

Sure but not something that you would sacrifice elementary things like a headphone port, screen, keyboard for

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Waterproof is just another ridiculous bit of spin to rationalize getting rid of the 3.5mm jack. Of course, water doesn't discriminate between entering through a round hole or entering through a larger rectangular (lightning) hole just millimeters away... or real and faux speaker holes on that same end too. Furthermore, other devices with 3.5mm have been made water resistant, so I'm sure the genius of Apple could have done it too... if they wanted to do so.

I do think water resistance is an excellent benefit of any expensive electronic device likely be to exposed to scenarios where it could encounter water. But pretending that only one type of hole in that device had to go to support that objective is either naive or conscious spin hoping those who see it will believe it and spread it as supporting rationale too.

 

[ZapNZs]

I'm still really hoping for USB-C. I've been blown away by how fast USB-C phones charge, and the quality of the USB-C charging cables simply put Lightning to shame - they will unquestionably last longer, have fewer issues, and be more economical.

If the next iPhone has Lightning, this will be a hugely inferior design point to Android counterparts IMO - especially considering that devices costing 1/3rd of the current iPhone are implementing the standard.

 

[jinnyman]

If Apple is so ahead of industry by removing 3.5, why on earth they still insist using USB 2.0 as data transfer standard for lightning? It's really a shame... atleast change iPhone 8 to use USB-C

 

[Moorepheus]

Ethernet, while not commonly used, is still nice to have for those rare situations when you need it.

What planet do you come from? I would argue that 90% of business use ETHERNET over Wi/Fi. Not only is it faster, its safer and not prone to interference such as that wireless devices prone too.

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

I wonder what Steve Jobs would have to say about adding a dongle into the mix if he were still alive today...

He'd say no.

 

[ZapNZs]

If Apple is so ahead of industry by removing 3.5, why on earth they still insist using USB 2.0 as data transfer standard for lightning? It's really a shame... atleast change iPhone 8 to use USB-C

I'm still holding out hope that they will use USB-C.

It probably is not the reason, but, if the coming iPhone uses Lightning instead of USB-C, it certainly fits the narrative that Apple removed one port and refrained from using another where they would not get licensing fees from, in favor of one where they have much greater control.

It's very possible one justification could be based on how many accessories are now Lightning and would require change...but, as we have seen with the MacBook Pro, Apple isn't scared to discard legacy technology, and Lightning is definitely legacy-legacy tech that is far more legacy than what they deemed to be legacy on the 2015 MBP...

 

[kyykesko]

Having said that, it seems this hasn't been anywhere near the life ending issue that MacRumors and readers made it out to be, before the release of the iPhone 7. It's still the best selling iPhone ever and people seem to be coping with loss of the headphone jack without issue.

Yes, and you know what tastes excellent because billions of flies can't be wrong?

It's not a life ending issue. Of course it isn't. Nobody is forcing anyone to purchase that poor excuse of a phone. I'm waiting for the next model to see if they come up with a phone that lasts even a full work day on a medium load. So far Apple has failed to do that after they introduced LTE in their phones. There's so much more you can do with it, the screens are bigger, they are more powerful (if at the same time consuming less power to produce it) but the battery development is going the other way - towards smaller batteries to make thinner phones.

I may be able to live without headphone jack. What I know for sure is that I'm not using that dongle. Plug it in, put the phone in my pocket and ... well, go buy another dongle (or a phone if you destroyed the lightning port, too).

What iPhone 7 accomplished for me is to ensure that the future of Apple phones in my pocket depends on iPhone 8 now. Either it's something I actually want to buy or 6+ was the last iPhone for me. It's so slow with the current iOS and drains the battery faster than I can say 'aargh'. I almost purchased 6S+ to get somewhere but luckily tried one. I'm not a big fan of the new buttonless home button. At least pushing my thumb on a brick wall rewards it with the feeling of the brick texture. Can't say even that much about the button.

I'd rather get an actual button that may fail at some point than a non-button that has failed on the start line.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Yes, and you know what tastes excellent because billions of flies can't be wrong?

It's not a life ending issue. Of course it isn't. Nobody is forcing anyone to purchase that poor excuse of a phone. I'm waiting for the next model to see if they come up with a phone that lasts even a full work day on a medium load. So far Apple has failed to do that after they introduced LTE in their phones. There's so much more you can do with it, the screens are bigger, they are more powerful (if at the same time consuming less power to produce it) but the battery development is going the other way - towards smaller batteries to make thinner phones.

I may be able to live without headphone jack. What I know for sure is that I'm not using that dongle. Plug it in, put the phone in my pocket and ... well, go buy another dongle (or a phone if you destroyed the lightning port, too).

What iPhone 7 accomplished for me is to ensure that the future of Apple phones in my pocket depends on iPhone 8 now. Either it's something I actually want to buy or 6+ was the last iPhone for me. It's so slow with the current iOS and drains the battery faster than I can say 'aargh'. I almost purchased 6S+ to get somewhere but luckily tried one. I'm not a big fan of the new buttonless home button. At least pushing my thumb on a brick wall rewards it with the feeling of the brick texture. Can't say even that much about the button.

I'd rather get an actual button that may fail at some point than a non-button that has failed on the start line.

Awesome for you brotato. Millions of others are enjoying their iPhone 7 now and having no issues. Customer satisfaction is high, despite your incorrect claims otherwise. Apple won't be giving you back those things you've complained about losing (physical button, headphone jack, bigger battery). Time for you to move on to a different phone.