Or maybe it's not meant to be "stereo"? No one craps on Android phones with two speakers, in fact many keep wondering why Apple hasn't done it yet. Splitting the two speaker duties (high/lows) like the iPad Pro would be better than trying to be "stereo" like other manufacturers are doing.
Why do you keep going to the "it's being removed strictly to add the speaker." argument? When it's way more likely to be the other way around, "they are removing the jack for other reasons and filling that space with a speaker. Because leaving that space empty would be stupid and a waste."
No one craps on an Android with two speakers, because they didn't remove the universal 3.5mm headphone jack to include them.
There's no way around the reality that if Apple is removing the 3.5mm jack, which is at least half the size of any second speaker they could be adding to the phone, if not less, that the jack is being removed from the phone to make room for the speaker.
THEY ARE NOT FILLING TEMPORARILY EMPTY SPACE WITH A SPEAKER that they will have to remove when the 7s comes out a year later!! If those speakers go in there, they are staying!
What you are proposing has yet to make any sense. They remove the headphone jack in anticipation of some piece of hardware they needed to make room for a year later, but isn't ready. So temporarily they add a second speaker, which will improve the sound of the iPhone in the interim, to temporarily fill the empty space (with the rationale that they have to fill every void inside the case or it's a "stupid waste of space"), but then have to remove the second speaker a year later, to put in the thing they removed the 3.5mm jack to accommodate in the first place!? That's so unbelievably convoluted I don't know where to begin.
If the speaker goes in this year, it doesn't go away a year later. In which case, it REPLACES the 3.5mm jack,because they will have to make more room next year to include whatever new tech they're adding. End of story.
If the real reason behind removing it is planned for the 7s, then those initial changes have to be made in the 7. Since they keep design for two years. Like I've mentioned in the post I linked. The wireless charging could be the whole reason behind it. Moving the antennas and removing the jack could have been required. Those two things are too big to change mid design (and not somethings they do) and would already be set in place when the design is first released in year 1 of 2 of its cycle.
I'm not disputing that. It's the only reasonable thing you've said. They design the 7s, then back out of the design to the 7 until the new tech is ready, otherwise they have themselves an impossible task of squeezing new unplanned features into a pre-existing case, and it's the Apple /// all over again.
But look at what you're suggesting -- they don't include the new wireless tech in the 7, but instead fill the unused space with a second speaker that they replace with the wireless tech a year later? That's not going to happen. Whether that's why they dropped the 3.5mm jack for future tech, they still have to account for all the internal space for the new tech. And if they add a speaker, they are still going to have to come up with more room for the new wireless tech next year. So yes, no matter how you slice it, they replaced the 3.5mm jack with a second speaker in your scenario, and it's a poor choice considering the negligible impact on quality and performance.
