iPhone 7 Predicted to Adopt Lightning Headphones Without Noise-Canceling Capabilities

[FSMBP]

That sure seems like low hanging fruit, so to speak, doesn't it? I mean, there is a massive tangible difference in performance. Removing the jack doesn't gain us anything. The problem is the former lowers Apple's margins and the latter does not.

Spot on...What do you expect from a company that offers 16GB flagship phones in 2016. Apple is shifting priorities from positive customer experience to purely profit driven.

 

[maflynn]

So do I understand the issue, Apple is moving away from the headphone jack but will not produce a product that includes noise cancelling technology. So basically they telling us to move forward (dropping the jack) but in doing so we'll have inferior headphones/earbuds.

That doesn't make sense - if the rumor is true.

 

[jake1776]

How much of this has to do with "waterproofing?" Can anyone address whether or not this is primarily aimed at making the phone better at keeping water out?

 

[KPOM]

These people at Apple are out of their mind. Removing one of the most universal pieces of technology for the sake of making their phones thinner and such. I feel that we're lucky that it stayed alive for so long, and then remove it for the worst reason? Lightning nor Bluetooth will even come CLOSE to replacing 3.5mm. If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Now we have to shove that sentence up the Apple executives' ass before they understand.

It's ancient technology and is limited to analog output. If anyone can effect a groundbreaking change to wireless and digital, it's Apple.

 

[Frosties]

How much of this has to do with "waterproofing?" Can anyone address whether or not this is primarily aimed at making the phone better at keeping water out?

It's all about the money.

 

[kevinkyoo]

Making the 5SE sound more and more like the last iPhone I'll purchase in awhile

 

[Frosties]

It's ancient technology and is limited to analog output. If anyone can effect a groundbreaking change to wireless and digital, it's Apple.

My ears are analog. They beat Apple headphones any day.

 

[nope7308]

No thanks. I'll be voting with my wallet on this one.
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Making the 5SE sound more and more like the last iPhone I'll purchase in awhile

My thoughts exactly.

 

[KPOM]

I'm not inclined to believe just yet that they'll really get rid of the jack entirely. Besides using it for headphones, a lot of self-employed people / small businesses are using the Square reader via their headphone jack. Make that disappear and suddenly a lot of the user base basically gets pushed out =/

There is a new $49 Square adapter that supports chip-and-PIN, and NFC. Smart small businesses are going to buy them because if they don't they'll be responsible for fraud-related chargebacks now.
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My ears are analog.

So? The port is over 100 years old, takes up a lot of space, and lets water in. Existing "waterproof" phones use kludgy rubber gaskets. This gives Apple room to add a stereo speaker, and I'm sure there will be an adapter available for when you want to use your old headphones. In the meantime, this might prod the development of better Bluetooth headphones. Let's cut the cord already.

 

[APlotdevice]

Nope, the idea of removing the headphone jack and replacing it with proprietary bullcrap STILL sounds incredibly stupid.

 

[jujufreeze]

There is no difference. All those people being creative for Apple have stock options in AAPL. It's their incentive for being there and creating things that will make the company $ because when the company makes $, AAPL tends to rise making their options that much more valuable. If you think they are being creative out of altruism you are mistaken.

Steve Jobs would have NEVER considered treating Apple customers like this no matter how high the AAPL $ potential was if he thought it was a bad idea.

 

[iZac]

Yep because a Barclays analyst is where I go to get my Apple rumors. Slow news week indeed.

China's been on holiday all week - no product leaks that can sneak out!

 

[APlotdevice]

There is a new $49 Square adapter that supports chip-and-PIN, and NFC. Smart small businesses are going to buy them because if they don't they'll be responsible for fraud-related chargebacks now.
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So? The port is over 100 years old, takes up a lot of space, and lets water in. Existing "waterproof" phones use kludgy rubber gaskets. This gives Apple room to add a stereo speaker, and I'm sure there will be an adapter available for when you want to use your old headphones. In the meantime, this might prod the development of better Bluetooth headphones. Let's cut the cord already.

No matter how well BT headphones are made, they will never be as good as a wired connection. Bluetooth simply doesn't have enough bandwidth to handle audio without some level of compression.

 

[latweek]

So basically they telling us to move forward (name of apple product here) but in doing so we'll have inferior (features/options).

See:
iTunes
iMovie
iPhoto
Time Machine
iPod
Macbook (ports, Ram/SSD Capacity)
etc.

 

[KPOM]

No 3.5mm jack wouldn't work. People seem to forget it's not just mobile devices that have 3.5mm jacks, everything has them. Computers, HiFi solutions, radios, cars, everything. I'm not buying some adapters for one device just so that I can listen to my music. If my 6S gives up, or I feel the need to switch, I'm buying the device that has the ports for the accessories that I already have. If you want to change the industry standard you do it for the entire industry asap, not just one company with only 2 (non-Plus and Plus iPhones) of the products in their entire product line.

Don't even start about Bluetooth headphones. That means a: buying new headphones (sorry but I like my wired Sennheiser Momentum a bit too much for that) and b: a batter that doesn't last even a day of continuous use.

Seriously, who attaches headphones to HiFis, radios, and cars these days (the last is probably illegal)? I'm guessing Apple has done the research and figured that despite all the complaining most people would be willing to buy a $29 adapter to use in transition until better wireless solutions are available, and in the meantime some will buy Lightning headphones. Apple promised back in 2012 that they would be using Lightning for the foreseeable future. Adding the USB 3.0 capabilities to the iPad Pro and now making it the sole port on the iPhone seem to reaffirm that commitment.

 

[Mascots]

If you think they are being creative out of altruism you are mistaken.

I hope you don't think that any employee in any company who is producing great a product with passion is doing it for the sake of raising a number that is pretty much unrelated to them. IMO sounds like a leader who is unaligned from his workers, not getting the most from them, and trying to lump them into a single category because human interaction is a chore (and said person is not an effective leader).

An employee may have interest in those things, but its a far cry to say that stock numbers are a driving factor in all decisions or the sole factor for any decision.

 

[d5aqoëp]

Now more money to print by licensing their lightning port to third parties.

Apple printing press goes...
a..jhinjhin jhik a..jhinjhin jhik!!!

 

[KPOM]

No matter how well BT headphones are made, they will never be as good as a wired connection. Bluetooth simply doesn't have enough bandwidth to handle uncompressed audio.

But there are other benefits (room for a second speaker, easier waterproofing). Apple has always been one of the first companies to drop legacy technology. I would not be surprised at all if this was one of the last items on the rumored Steve Jobs "roadmap" (i.e. unify around Lightning, which must have been in development while he was still CEO).
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I don't really mind them getting rid of the headphone socket if they include a lightning to 3.5mm adaptor in the box

My guess is it will be a $29 adapter. Enough to bring in some incremental revenue, but not enough to be a deal breaker for most people.
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Steve Jobs would have NEVER considered treating Apple customers like this no matter how high the AAPL $ potential was if he thought it was a bad idea.

So when Steve Jobs released the iMac with NO legacy ports and no available USB accessories in 1998, what was he thinking?

 

[jujufreeze]

Apple is basically telling its loyal customers: hey you're a captive audience, let's force you to buy things you don't need and make other manufactures produce more products that conform to our unnecessarily low standards because that is why we bought Beats. I highly doubt Steve Jobs would have allowed this to happen.

 

[APlotdevice]

But there are other benefits (room for a second speaker, easier waterproofing). Apple has always been one of the first companies to drop legacy technology. I would not be surprised at all if this was one of the last items on the rumored Steve Jobs "roadmap" (i.e. unify around Lightning, which must have been in development while he was still CEO).

Steve Jobs is the man who directed Apple to drop all the old proprietary Mac ports and replace them with industry standard USB. I think he would have had enough sense to know that going in the opposite direction... From industry standard to proprietary... is the most ******* thing you can do.

 

[TheHateMachine]

And the fact that Apple kept a pathetic 16GB as the base storage was ridiculous two years ago. In the year 2016 though, it would be absolutely jaw-droppingly stupid. NAND prices have taken an incredible dive over the past 5 years, and there's simply no excuse for Apple to still be selling a $650 16GB device.

There is a perfectly good excuse. They want their margin on the iPhone to go even higher and with falling NAND prices that just helps them out even further.

 

[Jsameds]

People - this isn't to do with thinner. It's to do with smaller.

 

[Nunyabinez]

OMG, Apple are idiots! First they took out the floppy drive, then the optical drive, and never put a blu-ray drive in their machines. My life every day has been crippled by removing these essential technologies from their computers, effectively rendering them unusable. /s

 

[robotfist]

Eventually the 3.5mm jack does have to go. It's been around since 1964 when it was first introduced in the Sony EFM-117J radio. That being said, since it has been around for over 50 years, it is not a port that is going to go quietly into the night. This is not akin to the loss of a computer port like Firewire 400 or the original iPod connector. Most of the audio in the world is currently being pushed through this port. An adapter is the only solution Apple will be able to provide, and it will be a painful reality for the first adopters. Until the rest of the world catches up (which will be a while) I foresee many situations when you may want to plug your phone up to a friend's system or use a pair of special headphones and you can't because you forgot your adapter. It's gonna kind of suck for a bit.

I think the most worrisome part of all this is that relying on solely connecting using a lightning port or Bluetooth will require that the receiving stereo system's software be compatible with the iPhone to be used. Currently the 3.5mm port guarantees that your phone will work with almost every audio system out there, software compatibility be damned. Have a vintage tube stereo from the 80's? No worries, just plug it in. Once it is lightning only, you will either have to use a pesky analog adapter, or connect via Bluetooth or USB and hope that the system you're connecting to plays nice with your phone. This will lend itself to numerous compatibility issues. My 2015 Subaru Forester's crappy stereo has both bluetooth and USB compatibility issues with the latest iOS. It's a brand new car. And this will be the new reality for a lot of people.

But I suppose we can't continue to live on an antiquated, 50 year old, analog port forever. So onward we march, to a bright and bold new future. The only question is... will the rest of the world follow?

 

[deany]

That's not how I read it. I thought it was suggesting the 3.5mm would be gone, but the new Lightning headphones wouldn't be noise cancelling - that feature would come in 2017.

being slightly cynical, but also hoping they keep the 3.5mm jack, as the new setup will upset a _lot_ of people.