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iPhone 7 - Don't cry about your missing AUX Input
- Thread starter GadgetBen
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No, that doesn’t cross my mind. Seems to be the main thing on your mind. If you think that is Apple’s main motivation then you should really stop using their products. Lots of alternative options out there for you. Most will even still have headphone jacks.
I suspect because Apple own Beats that they will create headphones using lighting connectors but at the usual stupidly high overrated price...
This has been the go to response for ages. "You don't like what Apple is doing? Buy something else."
No thank you. I'd rather discuss then merits, or lacketherof, of the decisions Apple makes. In some case I might learn something. In some cases the decisions benefit me. And in some cases they quite clearly do not. And if that change effects me deeply enough, only then will I decide to buy something else. Not because you told me I should.
Everyone has the power of choice. I don't think a single person comes to this page with the illusion that they are forced to buy Apple products. They don't need to be happy with every decision Apple makes, and despite you telling people to just go away because their ideas don't jive with your own won't make it so.
I am not saying it will for sure, but I am saying the headphone jack is unnecessary to me and I feel confident Apple would put that space to good use.
Minimal?
The amount of space it takes up is fairly significant when compared to the other things in your iPhone.
Agreed. In a mobile device the size of the iPhone that purports to do as much as it does, that's a massive amount of room taken up for a single function port.
I also agree that I am giving Apple the benefit of the doubt here, in that if Apple removes the port they have plans to make better use of the space. However, I have to admit the rumor of a second speaker frustrates me, because in my opinion, that is not a good use of the space, considering how widely the headphone jack is used. I'm all for removing it when the time comes, but adding a second speaker is not the time -- not to mention they'd have to remove a lot more to add any kind of effective speaker.
Could not agree more! I do not know anyone who buys a phone for the sound (or sound quality) of the external speakers. That seems to be much more of a waste than a 3.5mm jack.
That said, as long as I get an adapter so I can still use my $300 Bose QC 20's, I don't care what they do. If not, I just won't upgrade to the 7. As others have said, if there is a useful, functional use for that space, go for it.
I don't *mind*... I just have to find a decent pair at a decent price. I'm not an audiophile, so I don't want to pay hundreds for a pair of headphones. But I still want them to sound good.
It's annoying having to remember to charge too. But I'm all for getting rid of cables.
It's annoying having to remember to charge too. But I'm all for getting rid of cables.
That's the thing. Getting rid of cables is nice and all... but it's just being replaced with one more charging cable, and one more thing to have to remember to keep charged.
I don't know how else to respond to people who think Apple's big master plan is to build an adaptor empire. "Gentleman, iPhone sales are on the decline but we have a solution to close that gap. Remove the headphone port and sell adaptors. Best part is consumers will hardly notice and for those who do we will only have to sell 27 adaptors for each iPhone sale lost. I think we really nailed this one." Do you think that meeting really happened?
You have an extremely naive view of the world if you think that Apple's primary motivation is not making money.
This is where we've come to folks. The smartphone market is so boring and saturated that we have been convinced that removing a critical component that has no technological need to be replaced and takes up all of this space
is for the benefit of the consumer.
Soon they'll convince us we no longer need a screen 'because Siri.'
Yeah and if you looks at the dimensions its takes up more volume than the A9 processor. A single function jack for which there are other means to do what it does takes up the same about of room as the brain of the iPhone.
Mac128 posted this:
http://www.macnn.com/articles/16/01...o.ask.apple.shoppers.what.they.thought.131986
I hate to bring these up but this is the something that happened with the CD/DVD/BLU Rom Drive. DVD's were the thing, everyone said apple is making a horrible decision. And soon after that streaming services are the new thing, wireless screen mirroring etc..
Apple only refused to support Adobe flash because Apple can't take 30% of profits on flash games.
Perhaps I misunderstand the person you quoted. Or you did. Or we both did.
I didn't see anyone implying they want to build an adaptor empire. But far too many people assume that choices apple makes are not motivated by profit. And far too often do I hear "then buy something else".
The point behind my response to you is that it is absolutely ok to not be happy with everything Apple (or any other company does) and still stand behind their products. I have lost count how many times I have been told "then go to Android" over being unhappy with one small thing or another.
If that wasn;t your point, please accept my apology.
100% of the world's population owns a peripheral that requires a headphone jack, only 1% needs a better camera or 15 minutes of battery life. And if the leaks are to be believed, what takes the space of the headphone jack is another speaker, like we need to hear crappy music from Ariana Grande through another tinny crappy speaker from a thin smartphone in stereo. Truly idiotic.
I'm glad you brought this up. Apple's market share vs. Windows hasn't moved past a measly 8% despite it's outrageous market share in the mobile space and billions of new customers gained in the last decade. Why?
Because Apple gave customers what they wanted in the iPhone and did stupid anti-consumer things with their Mac's like incompatibility with Windows software and incompatible proprietary ports, that's why. They should learn lessons from their own failures as a personal computer company and not repeat them in the mobile space.
BJ
IMO it doesn’t make financial sense to kill a feature a good amount of people are going to be upset about and therefore not upgrade (as if it’s going to miraculously reappear in next year’s model. Ha!) or get a competitor phone with iPhone sales declining in an oversaturated market. Thinking this is a cash grab where adapter sales are going to make up for that is laughable.
If Apple includes an adaptor then it’s almost a moot point. Another possibility is they include lightening ear buds which I would find upsetting because, yay, high tech in Apple’s crappy ear buds. $10 Skull Candy ear buds have more range than Apple’s. If they want to be a hero they would include a split adapter so you can charge and listen to audio at the same time but I don’t see that happening and they didn’t do that with the single USB-C port on the Macbooks.
Wireless charging is another possibility but I don’t see anybody really expecting that this year.
Here’s an Apple type move. Only put a headphone jack in the + model.
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But the majority of people could care less if they have a headphone jack or not. It is like saying we should still make laptops with a VGA port because it is on almost every single monitor. The headphone jack is SO easily replaceable.
LOL What?
First, you really cant compare marketshares and you cant compare iPhone marketshare to Mac vs Windows market share. The iPhone and Mac Market Share are actually very similar if you compare apples to apples.
You realize the iPhone has incompatible proprietary ports while the Mac does not? The Mac can also run windows while iOS has absolutely no cross platform compatiblity.
For me, the apple earbuds have never fit my ears comfortably. What they should do, is include the adapter (one more thing to keep track of mind you) to allow us to use our current head phones, without having to pay $29 or more for it.
Here is my main issue with this... If I buy a pair of Bose Headphones with the lightning plug... I cannot use them for my MacBook Pro, I cannot use them for my work phone, which is a GS6...without having yet another adapter... like the quote below, I have multiple headphones for different situations and I have had some of them for many years and they still work great. so do I have one adapter and try to keep it with my phone, or multiple ones to keep with each pair of headphones...
I am the same way, I have Bose QC20 earbuds for the plane as I travel twice a month for work. I have Klipsch S4i's for my desk at my office (7 years old and still work great), and I have an old pair of Bose Ae2 over ear headphones for treadmill usage. They have withstood years of abuse and sweat. I also have a pair of Bose QC15's that my GF uses when she travels.
One benefit I see to the lightning port for audio, is my QC20's... it will probably remove the need for the rechargeable battery, which can be annoying. but they are $250-$300, so replacing them will not be cheap.
It's not about adapters though. It's about controlling the market. It's about limiting choice. And furthering future accessories that are therefore licensed. It's what their 30-pin and particularly lightning have always been about. They're not the only company guilty of this, by the way, just the most successful at execution.
A person wanting something "nicer" but not necessarily in the know about hsrdwsre is now likely to just go with the buds Apple sells with the lightning port because, why not?
If they were truly concerned about making things consumer friendly they'd also dump their proprietary charging port and go with a standard like USB c (which they've already shown they're not afraid to use).
At the end of the day I don't think the world is going to be in outrage over this. That doesn't make it a consumer friendly move. A consumer can be worse off than they were yesterday and not realize it. "Apple made this change and I guess I can deal" is the likely scenario for many.
Pretty much every justification I have seen on this forum as to why this "needs to go" is already a feature in other phones. Even wireless charging (unless it's some completely new tech) takes up such little space it's laughable; the cooks take ups about half the thickness of a credit card and about the same surface area.
We will see where this goes. I'm betting we don't see any clear benefits to dropping the port in years, if ever.
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The benefit to dropping the port will be seen be a very select minority (like with my comment above about noise canceling headphones using the phone battery instead of its own battery). The phone is thin enough at this point, if everything else inside it keeps getting thinner, I say put a larger battery in it.
The thing with any lightning port headphones is that you can already use them. Today. Dropping the port in a future device doesn't effect the usage at all.
People are over here complaining about this port stating it's wasting all this space. I'd like to see the silent switch go. It can easily be duplicated via software and is just taking up valuable space inside the phone. (In only half kidding here. It's a quality of life feature that could be duplicated in software, just not as elegantly).
Less than 2% of the headphone using public use wireless headphones. The other 98% use wired headphones. What are you talking about by saying "the majority of the people could care less"? The majority of the people will be dumbfounded, pissed off, and won't buy in to Apple's decision.
The iPhone is the single best selling mobile phone in the world. The Mac is a niche product with a small audience. Completely different planets. If Apple makes a major change to the Mac it wouldn't move their stock price a nickel. If Apple screws up the iPhone it's catastrophic.
To the public, the iPhone has 1 port and it's called the headphone jack. The other is a socket that people use for charging and nothing else. Your analogy doesn't work because unlike a notebook an iPhone doesn't transfer data or connect to other devices with ports. Except, of course, for a headphone.
I run Windows on my Mac so I know exactly what it's capabilities are. The reason it is not a successful consumer electronics device and its operating system a single-digit footnote despite 30 years of trying is because Apple ignores the massive Windows consumer base and caters to a small niche. If that's their suicidal goal for iPhone, so be it, alienating users by removing the port they use for music is a great way to do it.
BJ
It actually does function as an input, though not for audio. The square reader is one popular input accessory but I have seen other things like breathalyzers and even a light (why you'd want a lift I couldn't say).
This is true, but dropping the port basically forces the manufacturers to make lightning port headphone options... Most people do not want to deal with adapters when they can be avoided.
NO, leave my silent switch alone... I would despise having to turn on my phones screen to mute it