I actually don't disagree with anything you have to say however I feel compelled to play devils advocate.
I'm picturing an adaptor that requires proprietary components (more than just the connector) for its DAC (this wouldn't be difficult with compression or encryption think lightning AV connector) then Apple can break DRM audio. Everything else can work perfectly.
The only lightning to 3.5 jack I can find is Apples lightning dock. Are you aware of any others? If not why do you think?
Yes, but in the end DRM still gets broken, which is what the record industry presumably wants to easily prevent. Audio can be tapped into at any point where analogue conversion happens, like speaker outputs, but it's neither as clean or easy as plugging into a 3.5mm Jack.
Come to think of it, no I'm not aware of any other Lightning to 3.5mm adapters besides the Lightning dock. Then again, I'm not really looking. But that's likely a cost issue. Apple has offered the headphone jack in their docks since the first iPhone which came with a dock. Most docks, even the ones that look identical to Apple's don't offer the headphone jack. The iPhone has a perfectly suitable 3.5mm Jack, so why should they? And that's part of the problem with Apple including such an adapter for free in the box -- perpetuating the use of 3.5mm equipped products.
What's funny is when Apple released the Lightning dock, there was outrage about the price on these forums, compared to third party offerings. The justification of course was because it included a DAC and amp, something not required on the 30-pin connector docks which just passed through the analogue signal. And most people agreed the audio out on the dock was unecessary, rather than charge User's and extra $10-20 for something they didn't need. The reality is, unlike the previous docks for the iPhone 4s, this one needed the 3.5mm Jack since the headphone jack from the 5 onward is inaccessible when docked. In fact, I was surprised when I discovered that it did not support audio in for use with a headset when docked, something that was previously possible with the top accessible headphone jack.
So Apple only provides the 3.5mm Jack for audio/music output. And it's interesting that they released a new dock this past year (and raising the price $10) that continues to offer the 3.5mm Jack considering the current rumor -- why not just get rid of it, charge less while pushing wireless/lightning audio? But perhaps that's exactly why ... Not only does it keep their margins higher, but it gives anyone who has purchased a Lightning dock an instant 3.5mm adapter when Apple finally removes it from the phone, at least in the home or office. Heck I even thought about using mine in the car once.
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