JGRE
macrumors 65816
I would be dissapointed if it did; then iPhone 7 is just a minor update to iPhone 6: further drop in sales for Apple!
iPhone 7 Case: Nearly Identical Fit to 6s, Except for Camera Cutout and No Headphone Jack
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I would be dissapointed if it did; then iPhone 7 is just a minor update to iPhone 6: further drop in sales for Apple!
di1in
macrumors 6502
Remove headphone jack, speaker holes and power slot. Use wireless charging, and metal conduction for sound. Use glass throughout. Use adhesive plugs instead of screws to retain repairability.
You have one smooth slab of cold coloured glass for a phone. Water proof. No antenna lines. Technically possible today.
You have one smooth slab of cold coloured glass for a phone. Water proof. No antenna lines. Technically possible today.
pee-jay-bee
macrumors newbie
They are eyes are open? I think you wanted a 'their'.
My AKGs and Etymotics have more than a decade of life left in them and sound better than any wireless headphones. I'm not getting rid of them anytime soon. As much as I hate to say it, I'm going to have to abandon the iPhone when it's time for me to upgrade because I have a poor track record with adapters. I also don't see a mass adoption for a new headphone jack happening. The audiophile community won't go for it.
QquegChristian
macrumors 6502a
It's crazy how hard it is to explain this here.
Even now with the phone rumored to be identical in size and shape, people are still ready to give Apple a pass.
Current iPhone has Bluetooth, Lightning audio output, and an industry (mobile) leading headphone output.
These rumors all point to a phone that is the same size and lacking one of those 3 options. That is not progress and nothing to applaud.
If Bluetooth has made analog audio obsolete, then I have a whole slew of iPhone features that my Apple Watch has made obsolete. Taptic Engine, Apple Pay NFC, m8 coprocessor... The wireless Apple Watch has rendered these useless within the phone... Don't have an Apple Watch? Why not? Is it that you aren't happy with the battery life, or that it isn't quite perfected yet? Sounds like Bluetooth headphones to me.
Apple changed the world by offering so much utility in the iPhone... As techy as we all are on here, they sell a ton of phones because they sell to everyone. It isn't just audiophiles that this will upset. My grandparents have had the same Bose headphones for nearly 10 years. If they broke, they'd get them repaired... It's a different generation, and one that Apple sells a lot of phones to.
My parents use aux cables in 3 places. A massive stereo system (of the quality that they don't make anymore), a boombox by the pool, and in their car. They're the kind of people that will look at that $50 adaptor and decide to just stick with their current iPhones.
Apple has a LOT of people to please... this is the first time I can think of the iPhone visually LOSING a feature. It's going to be very interesting.
As I always feel I need to point out... I currently OWN Lightning headphones. (I got tired of switching out the cable and use them analog exclusively now) I've got very little to lose from this change (other than having to go back to switching cables all the time), and I still think it's stupid.
Mac 128
macrumors 603
I never plug wired headphones into my iPhone. So I cancel you out.
My 85 year old Mom has a bluetooth headset, never uses headphones and streams music over airplay. So she cancels your parents out.
I have two nephews who graduated high school and college and are planning on buying new iPhones in September. Neither use wired headphones. They cancel you and your parents out.
I love anecdotal justification, it proves nothing. A survey like this at least provides a sample for what most people might actually do.
http://www.macnn.com/articles/16/01...o.ask.apple.shoppers.what.they.thought.131986
May they call it the MESS.
It is stupid. And that obsession with thinner is not much better. My new 6S is my first phone that I put a case on. The combination of thin and the slippery finis made it awkward to hold. The camera sticks out. How much more battery life if the body was the same thickness as the camera?
When Apple dropped the 30 pin connector for Lightning, it upset some people. But it was replacing an Apple only standard with another Apple only standard. You could get adapters for your docking station. Your charging cable became obsolete, but the new device came with a charging cable. And the new cable could be used with the old wall wart.
Is the industry moving to USB-C for sound? Maybe. But it will be a while before it's pervasive.
Let's assume USB-C becomes the new mobile and laptop standard. And the USB-C spec allows for analog sound. That means that a lot of devices will support the standard. It also means that USB-C to 3.5mm is a simple connection change, as opposed to a Lightning to 3.5mm which will require a DAC. Let's be crazy and say that within the next 2 years, no phone or laptop comes with a 3.5mm and they all come with USB-C. From a shear number's POV, it's a great incentive for manufacturer to produce cheap USB-C earbuds and headphones.
Mini USB is uni directional and fragile. Lightning was a giant step forward in connector. The introduction of a relatively sturdy, directionless connector was great. But that future belongs to USB-C. think Apple would do well to plan to adopt it in the very near future. In the meantime, stick with the 3.5mm jack.
When Apple dropped the 30 pin connector for Lightning, it upset some people. But it was replacing an Apple only standard with another Apple only standard. You could get adapters for your docking station. Your charging cable became obsolete, but the new device came with a charging cable. And the new cable could be used with the old wall wart.
Is the industry moving to USB-C for sound? Maybe. But it will be a while before it's pervasive.
Let's assume USB-C becomes the new mobile and laptop standard. And the USB-C spec allows for analog sound. That means that a lot of devices will support the standard. It also means that USB-C to 3.5mm is a simple connection change, as opposed to a Lightning to 3.5mm which will require a DAC. Let's be crazy and say that within the next 2 years, no phone or laptop comes with a 3.5mm and they all come with USB-C. From a shear number's POV, it's a great incentive for manufacturer to produce cheap USB-C earbuds and headphones.
Mini USB is uni directional and fragile. Lightning was a giant step forward in connector. The introduction of a relatively sturdy, directionless connector was great. But that future belongs to USB-C. think Apple would do well to plan to adopt it in the very near future. In the meantime, stick with the 3.5mm jack.
I don't force anyone anywhere. I pay for all the stuff and I support all that devices. They are there because of me. For me it's my hobby.
I will keep my stuff anyway. But I just won't buy any new devices form Apple. With the money I save not buying new devices for 2 years, we can all go anywhere (Android, Windows, Linux, ...). I will look around and decide in two years. I will look for alternative cloud services. Maybe start buying music at amazon, where we are already today for prime. Maybe buy a kindle (or 4 for a quarter of the money I spent on iPads this year alone) Apple may fade out. Already today my kids would have spotify, if I hadn't subscribed to Apple music. Most of their friends have Android and Windows. There is more than Apple. Everyone has a choice. Like I convinced a dozend of people to switch to Apple in the last years.
Finally it is not the headphone jack that is that important - it is convienience and choice. We don't want to go all wireless.
I don't like the beats sound. My son has a headset for gaming on the Mac, with which he listens to music on his iPhone or watches a movie on his iPad. We don't want to carry around adaptors. We want a friend to be able to simply plug in their headphones. Plug it into any stereo. Today it's simple, easy, works every time, needs no configuration, no pairing, works in nearly anyplace with any device. Don't need it? Don't use it! Need it? It is there. The jack is everywhere. And so are plugs. Loosing it will be an annoyance, will cost time and money. Nothing will be won. A second speaker? Come on, stereo with 2 cm distance between the speakers? That's BS! Maybe it's stereo for ants but nor for humans!
For me it is ignorance, arrogance and greed at Apple. I do not like that!
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QquegChristian
macrumors 6502a
Way to completely miss my point. The iPhone must appeal to your family AND my family to continue being successful.
Of course people actually use Bluetooth. Just like a huge group of people only ever use the earbuds that come with the phone (and will obviously be Lightning connected).
Your anecdotes are not impacted by the INCLUSION of a headphone jack, however mine are absolutely impacted by the exclusion.
Even if only 5% of customers would be adverse to losing the jack, that is not good for Apple.
Only 5% of iPhones equipped with NFC in the US are actively using Apple Pay, but surely people would be upset to see the NFC chip go?
Mac 128
macrumors 603
What will you do if all phone makers drop the headphone jack, something that seems entirely likely? In two years, the only new phones you may be able to find with headphone jacks will be the cheapest, least features, Android models, and in two more years maybe none.
No I understand your point. But I think you missed mine, buried in my response: my nephews are buying into Apple for the first time as new iPhone customers, and they don't use wired headphones. They replace you and your parents. Sure there's no gain, but Apple doesn't lose market share. However, the article I linked to suggested most people won't miss the headphone jack. Now that's one survey of 1,000 Apple customers, and we have no idea what the actual affected demographic will be. But, I'll bet you that Apple knows the percentage of customers they will lose because they drop the headphone jack will be more than made up by new customers choosing Apple over Android because they don't care. You're also discounting the fact that it appears highly likely that Apple's competition will also be dropping the headphone jack, which means there's maybe another year let before those who want the latest flagship phones will have no choice but to go without the headphone jack whether they jump ship to Samsung or not. And for those parents of yours who are so set in their way, how will it be moving them to an entirely different platform? I know I wouldn't dream of moving my Mom from Apple and make her learn something totally different.
At the end of the day, that's all that matters. My Aunt used floppy disks to keep her recipes organized on her Mac. She used them until the day she died, despite our attempts to move her to a better method. When Apple dropped the floppy disk from their Macs, that was the last new Mac she got. We kept the old one running as long as we could, then bought a used PPC off eBay to replace it, and as a result she dropped out of the Apple ecosystem. She was directly impacted by the loss of the floppy drive, but the Mac market has only grown since then.
QquegChristian
macrumors 6502a
For me, the headphone jack is precisely the reason my wife and I own 2 iPhones and 2 Apple Watches. After having every generation iPhone, my iphone5 had a lot of problems (starting with the infamous scuffs from the factory, and eventually going through two separate recalls by Apple).
So we skipped the 5S and switched to Android. We absolutely LOVED the Galaxy Note. But the internal DAC/Amp was just terrible. We switched to a different Android phone and the audio was still lackluster. So we eventually came back to Apple and now have Apple Watches as well.
In many ways (definitely not all) I preferred Android over iOS. But, with Apple, I knew I was going to get good audio with pretty good amplification.
When Apple puts all audio quality in the hands of the headphone manufacturers, then it is one thing Apple no longer has a leg up on.
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Oh, I definitely agree with you that all phone makers will follow suit. That's the annoying thing. Even bad decisions will spread through the industry.
In general, I think Apple is doing this now for two reasons. 1. To get the controversy out of the way before the phone that will actually be thinner next year. 2. Because they're going to tout Lightning audio as a big feature this year and sell the public on it being superior.
In the end, I think that is what they are weighing. The loss of 3.5mm customers vs the gains from convincing the public that they invented higher resolution audio. The general public probably needs a different connection to believe new magic is happening. Most people certainly can't hear the difference, so Apple will be in full marketing mode.
I will wait and see. Two years are like ages in the smartphone market. But a glimps in hifi terms. Maybe eventually everything is wireless. We will see. But the only thing I know for sure is: I wont buy any new apple product in the next 2 years if the 7plus iPhone has no jack.
Trius
macrumors 6502a
I hear you and I understand your frustration. I've been following Apple for a long time. It just seems like a knee jerk reaction when they've proven time and time again with polarizing design choices.. It normally works out for the better in the long run. For me personally, I wouldn't make such judgements based on loose rumors.
coldsweat
macrumors 6502
I think you've nailed the reason for the 7 being similar to the 6/6s!