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Should the 3.5 mm headphone jack be removed with the next iPhone?

  • Yes

  • No


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After endless discussions on the forum, I think it's time to create a poll ...

Don't change it. Leave a 3.5mm in the phone. There is no improvement for the end user only for Apple profits or maybe possibly making the phone thinner. Either way, who cares. Having the jack is more important than continued quest for thinness.
 
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Until either battery or energy efficiency technology improves to the point where the 3.5mm connector is the thing preventing the phone from being any thinner, it would be very stupid to get rid of it.

  • A 3.5mm plug is, of course, 3.5mm wide.
  • The following thin Apple products have the connector, so they must be thick enough for it.
    • The iPhone 6, the thinnest iPhone to date, was 6.9mm in thickness.
    • The iPod Touch is 6.1mm thick.
    • The iPod Nano is 5.9mm thick.
    • I am pretty sure the iPod Shuffle, without the clip, is the thinnest device with the connector. It looks to be about 5mm thick.
  • I think about .5mm on either side of the 3.5mm jack is sufficient for housing.
  • So, until the iPhone is less than 4.5mm thick, the 3.5mm jack should remain.
 
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Yes, it should be removed. The space would be better used for literally anything else. At the very least, I'm hoping they could place another set of speakers on that side so our phones could output louder, better sound.

So if I buy a new iPhone without headphone jack, I get an adaptor that I don't need. The price is sort of hidden, because it's not optional. But I'll actually of course be paying for it. I just don't have a choice. Do you like having to pay for stuff you don't want?
Lol, do you feel the same way about the headphones the phone comes with? A lot of people, myself included, don't use those crappy earbuds at all.
 
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I'm working off assumptions here and one of those is that the cost of the iPhone would remain the same even with the adaptor included. Apple certainly wouldn't *lower* the price of the iPhone because they didn't include it.
So, the manufacturers are going to let Apple have it for free? Of course not, it will be paid. With money that is ultimately from the customers. People buying the phone will be paying for the adapter. Or Apple will lower their profit margin. Either way I would prefer to pay for, or have Apple lower its profit for something that is not useless to me.
If headphone makers run with the new standard and there are a ton of options in a few years then Apple could discontinue including it in a few years.
Headphone makers are not going to "run with the new standard" as long as iPhones have the jack, they are not going to take the risk, why should they.
However, I wouldn't put it past Apple to not include an adaptor and then charge $39 and basically give everyone the middle finger.
I hope they do, because then I need to pay $39 less.
 
I don't mind keeping it, but I wish they would make a retractable system so it opened only when you stick a headphone in it, so I didn't have to clean out lint every once in a while.
 
Yes, it should be removed. The space would be better used for literally anything else. At the very least, I'm hoping they could place another set of speakers on that side so our phones could output louder, better sound.


Lol, do you feel the same way about the headphones the phone comes with? A lot of people, myself included, don't use those crappy earbuds at all.
Yes, leave them out, as far as I'm concerned. Although, the latest Apple earbuds are the best I ever tried so far. When I didn't commute by car, but used public transport, I tried quite a few in-ears. Except for Apple's, none were really able to actually deliver sound to my ears without falling out. I really hate big earmuffs.
 
I don't have enough information to make this judgement.

If the reasoning is giving us a thinner phone (and nothing else) I would immediately say NO, because I feel it's already plenty thin. In fact, thicker wouldn't be life ending for me (as it wasn't when they made it thicker for 3d touch).

Another factor is the adapter. Will it be included? In the US, history would imply it probably wouldn't. It does't excite me to have to buy an adapter, which I suspect would be priced around $20-30, just to use headphones I already have. I would also not be interested in buying a pair of headphones that is not, and will never be, usable on any other non iOS device.

Now let's assume the adapter is a given. How cumbersome would it be? I use my phones in the gym and having to fiddle with yet another thing would be annoying. And I haven't even mentioned the fact that Apple's cables seem to wear out much faster than anything else. I have had the same set of gym earbuds for three years now (amazingly they have even been through the wash TWICE!) and yet I have gone through 3-4 lightning cables in that time as the cord inevitably frays if the phone is used a lot while it is plugged in. Surely that cord design (assuming it isn't changed) will be even under more stress in gym and other sporting environments.
 
Is this REALLY what the industry has come to!? The ONLY reason they would want to do this is so they can push more expensive wireless headphones.

I swear, at this rate, it'll only be a few years before the next iPhone is nothing more than a service you pay into and have to give a blood donation (they'll read your iDNA) in order to use at any one of their Apple telephone booths.

This is NOT innovation. This is pointlessly restricting customer control over the products they own, and I will leave Apple forever if they pull this kind of crap!
 
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So if I buy a new iPhone without headphone jack, I get an adaptor that I don't need. The price is sort of hidden, because it's not optional. But I'll actually of course be paying for it. I just don't have a choice. Do you like having to pay for stuff you don't want?
I hate paying for things I don't need. I would love for Apple to reduce the MSRP of the iPhone by $29.99 and keep those junk earpods out of the box. Realistically they could still charge $650, not give me earpods, and I would still buy because they aren;t a value added to me.

The reality is the MSRP would likely stay the same whether they decide to include it in the box or not. You can think of that however you want. The consumer always pays for something, but they won't necessarily pay LESS for said thing if it's not in the box.

I know there are a lot of people that use headphones. I think Apple might risk alienating users (read: risk losing initial sales) by not including an adapter like this. Or maybe not. They will likely run the market analytics (assuming these rumors are even a thing) and make decisions based on that. I am on the fence. I see it going either way and each is equally justifiable from a business stanpoint with the information available to me.
 
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So if I buy a new iPhone without headphone jack, I get an adaptor that I don't need. The price is sort of hidden, because it's not optional. But I'll actually of course be paying for it. I just don't have a choice. Do you like having to pay for stuff you don't want?

My girlfriend will never use the jack that come with her car. I guess she should get a discount when she buys her next car.
 
Actually not a bad idea.

There's also no chance of Apple including adapters or anything of the like. We saw it with the lightning connection: It's their way or the highway.

If the idea is to push people forward, then you cut off all other options. They're not taking the option of wired audio output away, they're simply offering it via a different option, which now requires an adapter. If someone doesn't want to add an adapter, and they want higher quality headphones than Apple gives them for free, then they have two choices ... make the move to wireless, or buy a pair of Lightning headphones. If you use you're headphones with equipment other than Apple, then you either buy Apple equipment, or Lightning compatible equipment, or you buy a reverse adapter for use with the other equipment. The choice is ultimately with the consumer. In the end, the number of people who fall into the category that requires a high quality pair of wired headphones for use with multiple equipment on a daily basis is going to be an extremely small niche market of Apple's demographic, and one with which Apple need not be concerned. Just like Apple is not concerned that I have to use an Ethernet adapter on my MacBook Pro within my company because our hard-wired network is behind a secure firewall on a different subnet from our wireless. Just like Apple could care less whether I will buy a Retina MacBook because it only has one USB-C port, which doesn't allow me to charge my MacBook at the same time I plug in an external drive, or two drives at once, without an adapter. Or the same way Apple doesn't care if I want to share the headphone output of my iPad with someone else without buying a headphone splitter. I mean, two kids in the backseat do this all the time -- why doesn't Apple put TWO headphone jacks into the iPad!? Who can keep up with all those adapters?

So I think it's fairly clear, if Apple is pushing people to a wireless standard, as they are in every other aspect of there portable business, then continuing to place 19th century technology in their 21st century products doesn't make a lot of sense. If people are inconvenienced enough, they'll go wireless, or adopt the Lightning audio standard into their lives. The last thing this will do is drive a substantial percentage of their customers to a different platform.
 
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I think it's an awful, idiotic idea. How much more are they going to take away just to increase the thinness a tad bit?? I think they need to focus on battery innovation and less on making their devices thinner. I just want to be able to plug in my Beats when I feel like it without needing to find an extra adapter. If they insist on going this route, it'd be nice if they provided the adapter with the phone (which they probably won't).
 
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Absolutely. Its about time we get rid of that headphone jack. I'm hoping Apple pushes everything over to bluetooth, including a bluetooth pair of the EarPods with each iPhone. Than the people who really want to go hard wired can go through the lightning cable, but for me I want to go all bluetooth.
 
I would think that Apple is trying to push for higher quality audio with output by the Lightning connector. In fact, the current lightning connector already supports a higher quality output compared to the 3.5mm. However, you've gotta use a third party music app to benefit from that as the native player does not support higher quality playback.

I would think that it's gonna turn people off if the 3.5mm is to be removed. It would be more of an inconvenience than it would benefit. Apple may start supplying it's EarPods with lightning connector, but honestly the sound quality of that sucks. Bluetooth headsets are pretty expensive and unnecessary, I rather pay more to have good quality wired headset. What about charging and using the lightning connector for playback?! I think that this move may eventually hurt itself in its music industry.

IMO, there is very little chance that Apple would provide the adaptor for free.
 
My girlfriend will never use the jack that come with her car. I guess she should get a discount when she buys her next car.
Absolutely! But, unfortunately car dealers (and Apple) can get away with not doing that. So they don't.
What can you do? Complain! So I do.
 
Given the design of Apple Pencil and how it charge... I don't hold breath... I mean you plug Apple Pencil into iPad Pro... It is waiting for accident to happen...
It can charge like that. It doesn't have to. It's a bonus. For when all you have with you is the iPad and the pencil. You can attach it to a cable or stick it on a lightning dock too.
 
I honestly couldn't care less if it stays or goes - I very rarely plug anything into my headphone socket (mainly use bluetooth or direct lightning to my car's head unit)
 
I'm all up for it, IF APPLE DOESN'T CHARGE US more for additional accessories or some type of BS.
 
Absolutely. Its about time we get rid of that headphone jack. I'm hoping Apple pushes everything over to bluetooth, including a bluetooth pair of the EarPods with each iPhone. Than the people who really want to go hard wired can go through the lightning cable, but for me I want to go all bluetooth.

Of all the hyperbole that Apple push about 'loving music', the idea of removing the headphone jack would be completely contrary to this. What about all the people who have great existing quality headphones and now will need an adapter just to be able to listen to music on their iPhone? People who plug into lecture halls through audio, or into their cars, or have headphone splitters so more than one person can listen at the same time? Heck there are even some people who use their iOS devices as plugins for guitar or other instruments. All these great apps and features that people use will have to be completely rethought.

Plus any less 'bulk' on the phone from the omission of the headphone jack will have the opposite effect if everybody needs an adapter for their existing headphones.

I also can't see how a wireless/Bluetooth audio interface would have better quality than wired.

Sure, add the option of lightning headphones or Bluetooth ones. Try push towards digital and give it a few years while consumers warm up to it — that's providing it actually has benefits with regards to audio quality, of course. But immediately getting rid of an industry standard connection, without even allowing people the courtesy to warm up to the idea, is just a little too far.
 
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