People keep citing the limitations of Bluetooth.
What if Apple doesn't use Bluetooth at all? What if they come up with their own proprietary wireless standard? After all, wireless earbuds don't have to mean "Bluetooth", and Apple has a large enough user base that they can get away with using their own homegrown solution.
A lot of the whine around this topic is about Apple going proprietary. I suspect there would be much less whine if iPhone was switching from proprietary Lighting to USB3 for this "all digital" conversion. Yes, that would still be a hassle (the same hassle in many ways), but it would still deliver any wired "superiority?" benefits Apple is about to hype while going to a real standard likely to "just work" with everything else (including Apple's own Macs) that decides to adopt a digital audio jack. Intel is adopting USB3 as this standard so everything that leans on Intel chips will use USB3 if it is to have a digital audio connector. Even Apple's future Macs will have this built into the chips they will be using. I'm not so convinced Apple will allocate the extra cost and space to a Lightning port on Macs for headphone purposes when they can just use what Intel has already provided through a multi-duty (USB3) port that will already have to be there anyway.
A proprietary wireless option should yield the same whine. Like hoping the rest of the world will quickly adopt Lighting so it can be as ubiquitous as 3.5mm is now, it would make the wireless cheerleaders spin the idea that the world would adopt this proprietary wireless standard. Else, your wireless buds could connect to NOTHING else except Apple stuff.
Most simply, this is decision-making that leads from thorough ubiquity to fragmentation. Our community here is usually quick to rip into any fragmentation driven by any
other player. For many years, one of our great bashes against Android phones with multiple screen sizes was fragmentation (until Apple adopted multiple screen sizes and then that argument evaporated).
Here we fragment from what is probably the most ubiquitous "just works" port on the planet to 3 ports: Lightning, USB3 and 3.5mm. To make ANY choice of wired headphones "just work" with about anything to which we might want to connect is going to require some combination of adapters or multiple wires or wires with multiple jacks to be on hand at any point in time where we want to connect. Since we can't always know when we need some connection, we will pretty much need to carry along those adapters
at all times... or just do without being able to make some connection as readily as we can now.
Even sharing the same headphones between iPhones and Apple's own Macs we already own will require some kind of adapter or alternate wire with a different jack on the end. Step outside the walled garden and it will DEFINITELY require 2 adapters to cover all bases (no matter which headphone wire terminator one chooses).
The Bluetooth standard or a hypothetical Apple wireless standard that is proprietary doesn't resolve the above. It's just more of the same without wires. Because the former is a standard that has been around for years, there are more places where it can "just work" (typically at some tradeoff in quality vs. wired) but it is far from being as ubiquitous as the 3.5mm standard. There are still plenty of situations where the Bluetooth "the future" crowd just can't connect as readily as they could if they had wired headphones terminating in the defacto, default 3.5mm standard.
A proprietary wireless standard created by Apple would connect to NOTHING but Apple stuff. As bad as wired Lighting and a dongle or two will be, proprietary wireless seems like it would take that same overarching problem to the MAX.
Nevertheless, having followed this topic closely as it's unfolded, I do suspect that Apple will roll out a new wireless standard in the presentation. I'm guessing it's going to be an early implementation of Bluetooth 5 but it could be something proprietary. I suspect Apple will hype wireless audio with great passion, show a video or two of relatively odd situations where wires can get in the way (and they definitely will in the demo video) and make it seem like "the <wireless> future" is here now.
BUT, new iPhones will ship with wired Lightning buds and "the future" will be available at a handsome add-on premium... thus the rumor of a new Beats headphones segment. I suspect that there will be something that makes the Beats purchase option the only viable option for those that want "the future" right out of the gate, delaying other similar-cost players from being able to launch competing headphones for at least a few months.
And I suspect iPhones will NOT ship with a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter. That too will be available separately- only from Apple initially- for about $19.99-$29.99. I suspect "cheap Chinese knockoffs for $5" may fail as "valid hardware" if one tries to go that way.
Lastly, I suspect the "space" created by ejecting the 3.5mm jack will be consumed by "thinner" and little-to-nothing else. Spin about "more battery", another speaker, other hardware is just spin IMO- some of us making up possibilities to try to defer/mitigate the whine about Apple just kicking out 3.5mm but keeping the price the same. I hear Apple is building a holodeck projector into the space where the 3.5mm used to exist, so who needs 3.5mm, Lightning or wireless when you can project the band into the room with you and have them play your music live?
But we'll see if this speculation- or other speculation- pans out. I'm sure Apple is well aware of this particular whine. So be ready for RDF maximization like you've never seen before. By the end, someone will probably believe the 3.5mm jack causes cancer or impedes world peace (except in everything else that Apple makes where 3.5mm audio jack is perfectly fine as is- so buy that other stuff now too).
