The lesson Apple keeps teaching and which others keep ignoring is - to create true meaningful change in a market, you need to force change. By taking bold unapologetic stances.
Here’s a touchscreen smart phone without the familiarity of a physical Qwerty keyboard. Here’s a large screen tablet without a desktop OS and desktop apps and file system. Here’s a smart phone without a headphone jack. Here’s a laptop with only usb c ports.
The real benefit comes not in me not needing a wired headphone, but in the removal of the jack (hopefully) incentivising companies to come up with better wireless headphones and wireless technologies. By giving them one extra reason to and one less reason not to.
It will be interesting to see what succeeds the headphone jack and if Apple ends up betting on the right horse all along.
Forcing people means that Apple feared or fears that will just stick with the affordable option. If Apple were truly revolutionary it should provide its customers choice, not force. This portrays a lack of confidence in its direction(s).
AirPods, many bluetooth options available, its still expensive, limited per charge and design fundamentals. Apples solution get rid of the headphone jack port, introduce its own bluetooth product, limits lightening port dongle to either use it for audio or charge the device, or purchase an unavailable third-party option to do both. Why not include the headphone jack port along with AirPods, see how the market react to your solution compared to the previously available options. Why not include a dongle that can charge and has a 3.5mm female connector, so consumers are not inconvenienced to decide between charging or listening to music, however are forced by Apple to use bluetooth options or purchase wired headphones that can also charge your phone. This was a sneaky move not to include a “Y’ lightening dongle for charging and a headphone jack in the box. So their remove the headphone jack to save space in the device, however the solution is a dongle, where is the logic in this. I would have provided the customer a $10-20 rebate coupon so the customer can use it on any bluetooth or lightening wired headphones. Choice, yes. Apple was not confident in their decision to remove it, due to fear of AirPods failing.
Physical keyboards and a stylus are more refined and faster methods of input, Apple has admitted to it with the iPad Pro Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil, let’s not fool ourselves. It is the same reason we still have them on laptops and part of our desktop experience. On-screen keyboards are a quick dirty solution and using ones fingers to interact with objects is limited to the available screen space.
Even Apple’s USB-C solution is half-baked, not going to go into details other than it is a dongle mess. For a company that markets itself and products as slim and sexy, one has to attach dongles or a hub to have any useful I/O benefit and at an additional cost. Why not include a single USB-C dongle that charges, has USB-A, 3.5mm, HDMI, SD Card, etc inside this expensive computer. Why are customers forced and burdened with additional cost and to look for a dongle/hub functionality I/O option to use their new and expensive purchase. This is an insult to all Mac users, you are a professional, you don’t have time to review, buy and fumble around with attachments when there is ample space in the devand the cost you paid. Why did Apple not gradually introduce its users and products with one or two USB-C ports on the pro models. Once again their were not confident that people will embrace an expensive option.
Oh, I don’t deny the transition period usually sucks, but I do feel that with Apple at least, it’s usually worth it in the end.
This is not a transitional period, it is an Apples way or the highway and I hope consumers and pros reject their hardware and send them a strong message. Maybe it is done intentionally to signal to the shareholders that consumers want iOS devices vice MacOS devices, so their can kill the Mac line sooner.