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Could Apple ditch the 3.5mm stereo jack?

Considering how unreliable my Bluetooth car thing from Belkin was, NO. These Bluetooth accessories will need the reliability of WiFi to be truly relied upon.
 
I cannot see the 3.5mm going away anytime soon. I personally use Bluetooth headphones and haven't used a 3.5mm connection in months. But I can't speak for everyone else.
 
Apple fanboy said:
I'm not sure the lightning cable idea will work. How would you listen to music and charge at the same time?
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Y-cable; 2 female ports going to a male plug.
 

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afsnyder said:
It's not out and you are saying it's too thin. Go test one out at the store when it comes out before making that argument.
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You need to check your reading comprehension as I did not say the 6 was out. I did express my concern about Apple making their phones even more thinner and more prone to bending. I will take a little more battery to keep the phone the same thickness as the 5.
 
I don't think apple is going to drop it yet. wireless headphones are just a tiny minority and apple doesn't need more reasons for people to switch to android.
 
maflynn said:
I don't think apple is going to drop it yet. wireless headphones are just a tiny minority and apple doesn't need more reasons for people to switch to android.
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Agreed. I have tried several wireless headphones including the Parot model and they are no quite there yet. Maybe in the future but I would like to see the jack remain for a long time.
 
jrswizzle said:
The thickness of the iPhone SHOULD be based on the camera apparatus.....say NO to protruding cameras!
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I agree, I think Apple is pushing far beyond the thinness threshold. When the products become so thin that the components have to stick out, it's like a starving person who's so skinny that all their ribs are showing. Unless the protruding camera offers some benefits over an internal one.

I could see Apple pushing for the 2.5mm headphone jack eventually though. There'd be a lot of complainers at first, but a few years later and all the other phone manufacturers should also adapt to that as the new standard. Or Apple will offer a $10-$20 adapter with the introduction of a new device that utilizes the smaller jack.
 
Serban said:
im sorry to say but 3.5 jack will see the last 2 years in Apple products now with them working for new in ear headphone with lightning connector for HD audio
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3.5mm coax digital audio connector exists and works great with any lossless or lossy audio. In fact Apple has used them before on Macs (unsure if they still do). The only reason to use the lightning connector is to be proprietary.

Maybe Apple could have gotten away with that a few years ago but competition is too tight. Take how annoyed people were when Apple switched from the dock connector to lightning and multiply by 100. Can't you just see the Samsung ads mocking people trying to plug their standard headphones in but can't find the headphone jack b/c their isn't one.
 
That would be great if they removed the 3.5mm jack and came up with a lightning jack to continue making the device thinner.
 
bnekic said:
That would be great if they removed the 3.5mm jack and came up with a lightning jack to continue making the device thinner.
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Yeah and nobody could use the headphone they want?

Personally I use my jaybird bluebuds x bluetooth headphones most of the time, but when the battery dies, it's nice to have regular headphones around with a standard jack.

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parseckadet said:
The jack was 3.5mm, but it was recessed and the opening around the jack was so narrow that most headphones would not fit. Aside from Apple's, there were only a handful of headphones on the market that could fit inside.
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Oh I see, I didn't get the iPhone until the 3G came out. I wonder if that was an oversight or deliberate to sell more headphones.
 
I can see myself telling my friends already...
Me: "The new iPhone coming out next week will be pretty awesome. And they finally took out that stupid 3.5mm headphone jack."
Friends: "what's that?"
Me: "the standard headphone jack size"
Firends: "Will all are old stuff work???"
Me: "What planet you living on of course not !"
Friends: "******* apple!!! Why would I want that sh**!!! That's bull sh**!!!

Yeah sounds like a great selling point :D
 
Kingmoak said:
I have been thinking for a while Apple will remove the 3.5mm stereo jack.
With the removal of the 30pin the thickness of the iPhone is dependent on stereo jack, The iPhone 6/6s could be the last phone we see with a stereo jack. Apple could make a lightning headphones and a lightning to 3.5mm adapters. Buying Beats could give them another brand to support lightning headphones/earphones. Now with news of Apple adding hd audio to Lightning (https://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/13/hd-audio-ios-8-new-in-ear-headphones-lightning/) they could offer higher quality audio as well.

This is all dependent on Apple releasing the Lightning spec to the public for general use much like MiniDisplayPort, this also leads to my theory of Lightning replacing USB-c as an IO connector. I wrote about that in theverge http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/28/5...ded-lightning-connector-and-a-great-jerk-move

Thoughts?
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A solution in search of a problem.

For the sake of a headset, does it matter what quality digital signal might be conveyed through a Lightning connector? Somewhere along the line, that digital signal has to go through a D/A converter in order to drive a pair of analog headphones (or speakers), with all their inherent weaknesses. The only question is, where will the D/A take place; inside the iPhone, where it can easily draw power from the internal battery, or externally, presumably inside the headphones (like self-amplified speakers)?

For the sake of avoiding a pointless debate, I'll concede that 10 feet of plain copper wire is enough to noticeably degrade an analog audio signal. However, 10 feet of oxygen-free, cryogenically-cooled, 00 gauge crystalline copper Behemoth Cable might suffice. Still, 10 feet of digital fiber optic cable has the potential for topping even that. Well, good fiber optic cable. I wonder how synthetic sapphire would perform in this application? (Perhaps that's what Apple's really working on in Arizona.) Anyway, the CERN Large Hadron Collider probably has instrumentation sensitive enough to measure the improvement, even if the difference is likely to be orders of magnitude below the threshold of human perception. If you can measure it, someone will claim they can hear it, just as they have the visual acuity to discern the subtlety of the Emperor's latest fashion statement.

Anyway, there's greater potential for improved quality elsewhere in the system. Headphones that measure and compensate for the resonances of the auditory canal, read the frequency response of the tympanum, test the electrical resistance of the auditory nerve, and vaporize ear wax with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser.
 
The audio jacks in use today date from the 1870s (!). They're overdue for modernization; that is mainly a digital connection to ensure consistent quality and a better two-way communication for remote control, microphone, cameras, sensors, whatever.

I don't miss floppy drives, CD/DVD drives, ADC, FireWire, VGA, DVI—all things that people said Apple would be doomed for of they remove them.
 
I think there's a physical limit to a headphone connector.
It has to be stable enough to not break the casing, so it cannot be super thin.

If you consider a MagSafe kind of connector you need more surface space for the magnets, which would increase size.

Since headphones are really an individual choice more than anything else you might connect to a phone, I don't think Apple will change that.

BTW, I agree with all previous comments about the "thinness war". I don't thing that a thicker phone has any drawbacks at all. I'd appreciate more battery and more stable aluminum casings.
 
Change to lightning? I hated, but understood. Getting rid of the 3.5mm? Will hate it and not understand it; the thickness of the iPhone should be limited by this. I really don't understand the point of making it thinner and thinner. For it to be as thick as a 3.5mm port would probably be the most ideal and above all, practical.
 
Most of the comments have a point. With charging and listening to music being an issue and Bluetooth headphones have their issue, but in time they will be solved. 2.1 A2DP to 4.2 is a great step forward.
The Playstation Gold headphones have the ability to be 3.5mm audio only as well as Bluetooth with a 2 way 3.5mm cable. Beats headphones also has this neat feature that allows them to change the audio cable to the headphone with any other cable, since the cable is usually the first thing to break on headphones. I could see lightning taking over that charge/audio duty.

Maybe this will be more of a phased approach
Phase 1: Apple first allows Lightning audio, while keeping the 3.5mm (iPhone 6/6s) this maybe already happening.
Phase 2: Allow headphone makers the ability to make lightning headphones, while keeping the 3.5mm. (iPhone 7/7s)
Phase 3: Allow time for consumers to attain lightning headphones or give bluetooth more time to mature to BT 5.0, before Apple kills the 3.5mm all together. Lightning/BT headphones at this phase has to provide a feature that is not possible on current wired headphones. It could be charging, allow for a small LCD, or something crazy. http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ne...tunestir-ipod-fm-receiver-transmitter-remote/ but more useful
Phase 4: Remove 3.5mm jack (iPhone 8 or about 4 years away.)

Although this does not make my argument stronger, there is another phone that ditched the 3.5mm jack and it did terrible. The T-Mobile G1 goto engadget for the review http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/16/t-mobile-g1-review-part-1-hardware/
So for a brief time people were buying MiniUSB earphones. But a phased approach with a market leader would give Apple a shot at ditching the 3.5mm audio jack.

Also someone said the current audio jack was here since 1870 that's the 1/4 inch jack the 3.5mm has been here only since the late 1970s for general consumer products.
 
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It will not go away any time soon. I guarantee most people use third party earphones instead of Apples, and adapters would be way to annoying.
 
The 5S is already borderline too uncomfortable for me to hold. If it got anything thinner I don't know if I could use it. I finding holding my 5th gen touch difficult enough to hold and the camera protrudes making it wobble on a table top.
 
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