The superior replacement was not already on hand. Apple took away the floppy disk in the iMac and didn't give customers another built-in writable/removable option for 4 years, when the prices came down low enough to put a CD-RW for the same price. Sorry but I was there, and this is the exact same situation. Wireless is the future of audio, and just like Floppy's & serial and SCSI, better or not, there was no established infrastructure in place, nobody was buying these next generation devices that were there, and developers languished. I read somewhere that in 1998, 80 new manufacturers jumped into the CD drive business. Gee I wonder why? And I'm sorry, Firewire was a PUBLIC standard?
And you know why Apple isn't going to include both. The main reason they are likely even considering it at this juncture is because they need the room. Not to make the iPhone thinner, but to add new features, improve the battery life, and try to not make it bigger. And then there's creating demand for a better standard, which is wireless, not Lightning. But for those who must have the highest quality sound on their iPhones, there will be adapters. Macs will all add Lightning ports on the next refresh, so those exclusively using Apple products will have full compatibility going forward.
Of course they are. Not in terms of the size of the contribution, but in the advancement of the technology. The future of audio is wireless.
There was one USB floppy drive capable with the iMac when Apple dropped the internal one. And after the customer paid $1299, they were supposed to for over another $150 for an external floppy drive, which many still needed. And what Apple PowerBook exactly had built in floppy drive after the iMac came out? And yes USB thumb drives were far superior to floppies but they were also incredibly expensive. More importantly, USB was a new standard, that even if someone did shell out the money for a flash drive, they weren't likely to have anywhere they could use it. I have to ask, were you there? Because I was. And it was nothing like the paradise you describe.
You really need a history lesson. When Firewire came out there were no products for it. And what there were were incredibly expensive, and buggy as it took time for drivers to be fixed. Moreover, people weren't about to throw out thousands of dollars of perfectly good SCSI peripherals that worked just as well as Firewire, at the time, so Firewire to SCSI adapters appeared, and were hard to get they were in such demand. As for the use on portable devices, would you be surprised to learn that Apple used Firewire on the first TWO generations of iPods? And then replaced it with the 30-pin dock connector and screwed all the first gen customers by breaking compatibility with Firewire a year later.
Of course it is. In the end, wireless is absolutely superior to wired, all thing being equal. At this point, the quality of wireless is at the same place as the quality of USB, and Firewire devices was in 1998. For a direct comparison there's Wifi, that also appeared in the mainstream in 1998, and it was just as inconvenient, expensive, buggy, and problematic. Today it is the primary way we all connect to the internet, yet, Ethernet is still a superior standard. Yet Apple removed Ethernet jacks from their MacBooks, and iOS devices can't even connect with an adapter. Funny how a superior technology has been supplanted by an inferior one for the average consumer.
1) You're stating this like a fact, without citing your evidence. but I'll bet it's just your opinion based on some anecdotal experiences. My experience has been vastly different. I've never had a Lightning connector break and I must plug and unplug my iPhone over a dozen times a day. On the other hand, I've had headphone jacks go bad routinely, cables go bad, and sometimes even a plug itself. As long as wires are in the mix, there will always be problems like this.
2) No, everybody who uses a 3.5mm headphone will need an adaptor. I would wager the typical iPhone customer uses almost exclusively the white earbuds Apple bundles with the phone. New Phone, new lightning earbuds. Problem solved for many users. Many more will decide to upgrade to wireless, or Lightning, and the falling prices and improved technology thanks to increased demand and competition will make even good wireless headphone affordable to those who wouldn't consider them now solely based on price.
1) Will be improved
2) Matter of opinion
3) My Bluetooth headphones run for 8 hours on a single charge. Some run for up to 20. And that's only going to improve over time. $20 BT Adapters will do just fine, no need to replace your receiver. THat's just spreading FUD and you know it.
4) Not a problem in the US, and that too will eventually be a thing of the past as more airlines certify their planes for use.
5) Again more FUD. Studies have proven this is just not true, and for those who believe this superstitious mumbo jumbo, they can buy a wired set of Lightning headphones.
Yeah it's exactly the same.
