Why did Apple remove the 3.5mm headphone jack?

[DADDYDC650]

I don't think it's about money. I really think they are 'attempting' to be forward thinking.

Either way, only time will tell. But considering it's an experiment, and we are test subjects, I wouldn't mind getting a discount on my new phone i'm going to buy

thanks!

Do you honestly think Apple stockholders would allow Apple to do anything if money wasn't the biggest priority?

 

[Macalway]

Do you honestly think Apple stockholders would allow Apple to do anything if money wasn't the biggest priority?

I doubt they are micromanaged to that extent. And actually, I don't even understand this.

 

[MrXiro]

There are still too many constraints with wireless that need to be worked out beyond just battery life (price, audio quality, fast switching, etc) before mass adoption can really happen.

That is exactly my point... elimination of the headphone jack will force the tech industry to push for better wireless faster. Nothing motivates advancement faster than problems. We went over 10 years dealing with resistive touch screens before the iPhone and now capacitive is the standard.
As for Price there are plenty of $30 under bluetooth headphones you can find that work/sound just fine... once power is perfected they can move to a lossless/nearly lossless format which will then need to be power perfected.

 

[sunking101]

That is exactly my point... elimination of the headphone jack will force the tech industry to push for better wireless faster. Nothing motivates advancement faster than problems. We went over 10 years dealing with resistive touch screens before the iPhone and now capacitive is the standard.
As for Price there are plenty of $30 under bluetooth headphones you can find that work/sound just fine... once power is perfected they can move to a lossless/nearly lossless format which will then need to be power perfected.

What about those of us who don't want to be early adopters? Keep an aux jack in there too so that we don't have to worry about worsened audio performance and charging more batteries. Until this new technology is perfected it is inferior to what we currently have!

The people who 'need' wireless earphones number considerably less than those who prefer increased battery life of the phone and not needing to charge a battery in their earphones, not to mention those who purely require the best audio reproduction possible from their devices.

 

[MrXiro]

What about those of us who don't want to be early adopters? Keep an aux jack in there too so that we don't have to worry about worsened audio performance and charging more batteries. Until this new technology is perfected it is inferior to what we currently have!

The people who 'need' wireless earphones number considerably less than those who prefer increased battery life of the phone and not needing to charge a battery in their earphones, not to mention those who purely require the best audio reproduction possible from their devices.

If you're not an early adopter then the iPhone 7 isn't for you. They should get the 6s. That's why it still exists and speed/power-wise the 7 isn't THAT much better. The 7 is definitely a beta product IMO. Much like the first Apple Watch.

If they would have kept the 7 with a headphone jack then that would put off improving wireless headphones for another year. Because the "most popular phone" now has no headphone jack companies will be FORCED to create a better solution. That's how growth works. It'll become stagnant if companies just kept the part in there. You may not like it but Apple isn't do it for you. They're doing it to push technology forward.

 

[P0stalTek]

What about those of us who don't want to be early adopters? Keep an aux jack in there too so that we don't have to worry about worsened audio performance and charging more batteries. Until this new technology is perfected it is inferior to what we currently have!

The people who 'need' wireless earphones number considerably less than those who prefer increased battery life of the phone and not needing to charge a battery in their earphones, not to mention those who purely require the best audio reproduction possible from their devices.

How could you possibly know that? Is there some kind of source for statistics of users "who need wireless earphones" vs those who prefer to be tethered to their phone?

87% of statistics are made up on the spot.

 

[NorthSeaBeach]

Simple. Because now you have to buy their expensive headphones. Customer satisfaction isn't the prime target for Cook. It's all about the money. It's sad really. But it will bite Apple in the ass if the coming iPhones updates are as underwhelming as the 7/7+ is. It's just not good enough and skipping the jack is not in customers interests. I'll for sure skip this version and the 8 better be good.

 

[Macalway]

87% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Pretty funny

 

[sunking101]

How could you possibly know that? Is there some kind of source for statistics of users "who need wireless earphones" vs those who prefer to be tethered to their phone?

87% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Seems obvious to me. Who really 'needs' wireless earphones? Some do sure, but most?

 

[P0stalTek]

Seems obvious to me. Who really 'needs' wireless earphones? Some do sure, but most?

And who 'needs' adapter-less anything? Some do sure, but most?

 

[sunking101]

And who 'needs' adapter-less anything? Some do sure, but most?

Using wireless ear/headphones puts a further drain on the iPhone's battery and also introduces another battery into the proceedings. So more drain, a separate battery for the earphones and inferior audio quality. This wireless earphones idea sounds like a huge slice of win. Of course some people will need wireless earphones but for me the negatives far outweigh any positives and although I can still be wired up to my iPhone, using the Lightning port via an adaptor is a bit goofy and prevents simultaneous charging. I can only see 100% negatives from this move.

 

[5105973]

Using wireless ear/headphones puts a further drain on the iPhone's battery and also introduces another battery into the proceedings. So more drain, a separate battery for the earphones and inferior audio quality. This wireless earphones idea sounds like a huge slice of win. Of course some people will need wireless earphones but for me the negatives far outweigh any positives and although I can still be wired up to my iPhone, using the Lightning port via an adaptor is a bit goofy and prevents simultaneous charging. I can only see 100% negatives from this move.

Worse for the environment, too, consigning perfectly good headphones to ultimate obsolescence and switching over to ones that need batteries that will require energy and materials and pollution to produce and then will either end up as waste or require more energy and produce more pollution to be recycled. As it stands now my Bluetooth devices don't seem to have replaceable batteries and so essentially are disposable with their limited shelf life, while my wired headphones have already lasted over fifteen years and can continue on for many more years if I take care of them.

Rather hypocritical of Apple to force a standard change that could have negative impacts on the environment, when the standard is still quite good and the replacements are still quite mediocre in many cases.

 

[sunking101]

Worse for the environment, too, consigning perfectly good headphones to ultimate obsolescence and switching over to ones that need batteries that will require energy and materials and pollution to produce and then will either end up as waste or require more energy and produce more pollution to be recycled. As it stands now my Bluetooth devices don't seem to have replaceable batteries and so essentially are disposable with their limited shelf life, while my wired headphones have already lasted over fifteen years and can continue on for many more years if I take care of them.

Rather hypocritical of Apple to force a standard change that could have negative impacts on the environment, when the standard is still quite good and the replacements are still quite mediocre in many cases.

Indeed. More for landfill.
Also, I'd be very wary of wireless earphones falling out of my ear. What exactly are the positives here, other than for nerdy 'look at me' tech flashers?

 

[cmanbrazil]

First, I belonged to the camp that hated the removal of the headphone jack. I considered not buying the iPhone 7, solely for that reason. I haven't had a great experience with bluetooth in my car, with headphones, or in my home. I can clearly hear the loss in quality. Then I thought well maybe apple has found a way to improve bluetooth quality -we all are waiting to find out. Really, I thought I only use the connector for my headphones anyway, so maybe its not that big of a deal for me.

I got my new iPhone yesterday, and was happy to learn the dongle snap connects to my headphones so I don't even need tape. Then I got into my agency van to drive out of town. It only uses 3.5 connector so i can't charge while I use gps and drive. My hotel room uses a 3.5 connector for music. Luckily I brought my headphones, so I have the connector. However, I'm slowly realizing I will need to carry this sorry little connector everywhere. I got the 7 plus with 256 storage so I can carry videos and music of projects everywhere i go, and in some places, the 3.5 connector is the best option. Now I hope someone develops a case that includes a storage compartment for it.

Since I paid very little for the new iPhone because the trade in value of the 6 plus is so high, I won't take it back, but i do realize that this will be a bigger pain than i originally thought -at least until the dongle case is invented.

I think that this will be a gigantic economic win for apple. Way more than the dongle costs of MacBook pro's.

 

[MrXiro]

. I can only see 100% negatives from this move.

Then you lack vision and outside of the box thinking as it's been explained a few times on this forum how and why this decision was made.

 

[sunking101]

Then you lack vision and outside of the box thinking as it's been explained a few times on this forum how and why this decision was made.

Why should Apple care if wireless earphones take off or not, other than that they sell wireless earphones? What is driving Apple to make wireless audio the new big thing in town? Currently wireless earphones offer zero improvements over the tethered type, and they're actually worse in many areas. Why should I care that this will force wireless manufacturers to up their game in years to come? As of right now Apple have introduced a problem, not a solution. That to me isn't in the least bit helpful.

 

[Macalway]

Then you lack vision and outside of the box thinking as it's been explained a few times on this forum how and why this decision was made.

Both extreme viewpoints, no?

Removing a wired connection in place of another one is not a bad idea. Probably, the only question is whether it's actually simpler to unify the connection, resulting in a unified, more complex connection, or two separate simpler ones. The goal being to simplify. (just speculating)

It's a pretty interesting move on Apple's part, regardless of the fallout.

 

[bcemail]

Now I hope someone develops a case that includes a storage compartment for it.

Just read about a Kickstarter for a case that has a lightning and 3.5 jack on the bottom. Those campaigns can fail, of course, but at least people are thinking about solutions.

I've had quite a few Lightning connectors slowly die and stop working. I think the connector is just a bad design. Can't remember ever having a 3.5 connector go bad, no matter how I treated my headphones (short of the wire fraying, breaking, etc.). And some of us work in places where wireless headphones (or wireless anything else) are not allowed. Guess I'll need to pick up some extra dongles.

 

[MrXiro]

Why should Apple care if wireless earphones take off or not, other than that they sell wireless earphones? What is driving Apple to make wireless audio the new big thing in town? Currently wireless earphones offer zero improvements over the tethered type, and they're actually worse in many areas. Why should I care that this will force wireless manufacturers to up their game in years to come? As of right now Apple have introduced a problem, not a solution. That to me isn't in the least bit helpful.

The removal drives the evolution of wireless headphones further. Their goal is to progress wireless tech, a technology that has been around since the late 90s... so nearly 20 years now. We will never make the greatly powered, amazing sounding wireless headphone while we're on crutches/training wheels forever. What does Apple have at stake? A they can make smaller phones. B. They have little headphone company that is happy to sell you their new wireless tech through.

I'm not saying that this isn't user hostile. It completely is but how long do we sit on ancient tech and continue using it? Would you still be wanting to use a floppy disk or driving your car on wooden wheels?

This is why you lack vision. Do I "LOVE" this decision? No not really. I'm an avid headphone collector with close to 50 pairs in my possession. But I can see why they did it.

 

[NorthSeaBeach]

. They have little headphone company that is happy to sell you their new wireless tech through.

I'm not saying that this isn't user hostile. It completely is but how long do we sit on ancient tech and continue using it? Would you still be wanting to use a floppy disk or driving your car on wooden wheels?

This is why you lack vision. Do I "LOVE" this decision? No not really.

It's a profit driven decision that has nothing to do with vision. The floppydrive was not dropped untill something better and more convenient was on the market (USB-stick). There's no better and more convenient alternative for the jack. You yourself are stating that dropping the jack is user hostile. And you're correct. That is not what Apple used to be about. Add to that the mediocre technological progress that the 7/7+ is compared to it's predecessor (and the competition, 720p screen in 2016, come on!) and the stale third iteration of the same design with added fugly camerabump and the coolness factor starts to wane. Maybe not in the US, but globally. I can't remember when an iPhone launch was greeted this lukewarm. Well I can still hope that all the rumours about next year are true.

 

[IllusionEntity]

Don't know why, but really it's much more annoying than I thought. Really the only thing I don't really like about my new iPhone. I'll need to buy more if this stupid adapters to have with my headphone cases and aux cables.

That's a good choice of music there, sir.

 

[Mac 128]

It's a profit driven decision that has nothing to do with vision. The floppydrive was not dropped untill something better and more convenient was on the market (USB-stick). There's no better and more convenient alternative for the jack. You yourself are stating that dropping the jack is user hostile. And you're correct. That is not what Apple used to be about. Add to that the mediocre technological progress that the 7/7+ is compared to it's predecessor (and the competition, 720p screen in 2016, come on!) and the stale third iteration of the same design with added fugly camerabump and the coolness factor starts to wane. Maybe not in the US, but globally. I can't remember when an iPhone launch was greeted this lukewarm. Well I can still hope that all the rumours about next year are true.

You're joking right? In 1998 an 8MB Flash drive cost $40. Nobody but the Mac could use them without dongles and adapters, most of which required Windows 98. Even the iMac had serious issues with USB drivers in the first few years for most things. Most files were easily transported on a 1.4MB floppy which cost less than 30 cents and in universal use. There was absolutely no more convent and better way to move small amounts than the floppy. But do carry on with your revisionist history.

 

[trifid]

Worse for the environment, too, consigning perfectly good headphones to ultimate obsolescence and switching over to ones that need batteries that will require energy and materials and pollution to produce and then will either end up as waste or require more energy and produce more pollution to be recycled. As it stands now my Bluetooth devices don't seem to have replaceable batteries and so essentially are disposable with their limited shelf life, while my wired headphones have already lasted over fifteen years and can continue on for many more years if I take care of them.

Rather hypocritical of Apple to force a standard change that could have negative impacts on the environment, when the standard is still quite good and the replacements are still quite mediocre in many cases.

That's a great point actually, about bluetooth battery waste and the fact they aren't replaceable and the huge impact on the environment. I'd also add that Apple is at fault for forcing a proprietary connector instead of a universal connector, there will be massive environmental waste from all the new lightning headphones and adapters that Apple is shipping, and people buying.

 

[MrXiro]

It's a profit driven decision that has nothing to do with vision. The floppydrive was not dropped untill something better and more convenient was on the market (USB-stick). There's no better and more convenient alternative for the jack. You yourself are stating that dropping the jack is user hostile. And you're correct. That is not what Apple used to be about. Add to that the mediocre technological progress that the 7/7+ is compared to it's predecessor (and the competition, 720p screen in 2016, come on!) and the stale third iteration of the same design with added fugly camerabump and the coolness factor starts to wane. Maybe not in the US, but globally. I can't remember when an iPhone launch was greeted this lukewarm. Well I can still hope that all the rumours about next year are true.

The 7 is clearly a beta model/stop gap model (to me) used to test the waters on how a headphone jack free phone would work. The dual camera set up on the Plus is an even more obvious Beta part... the "coolest" feature isn't even available until the end of the year (sans beta testers). The 7 is clearly the phone for them to work out the bugs for next year's newly designed and updated phone.

The headphone tech is old tech... really old tech. Bluetooth is not proprietary and has been around for YEARS... and it has barely improved. The biggest improvement came in Apt-X compression which in itself 1/2 a decade old now.
It might not be obvious to you that this painful move of removing the jack is to push the tech but look at it this year... Now we have the W1 chip that seemingly 2x-3x the battery life of previous bluetooth headphones (based on the 5/hr PB2 live to 12/hr PB3 or 12/hr Solo2 to 40/hr Solo3). So let's say in a years time when the new iPhone 10 yr Anniversary phone comes out they are able to perfect the W2 even further. Double THAT battery life and introduce a new lossless format that will impress us. But had they not introduced this model that shows us a glimpse of the future we wouldn't be as impressed with the model next year. This also leads other bluetooth headphone manufacturers to up their game and create better products and innovate.

I would like to think that Apple is still a forward thinking company and there are reasons they are doing what they are doing. The design of the 7 is clearly because they are on an odd year... if they redesigned this year then they would have to redesign again for next year's 10th anniversary phone. You don't make a flagship product an "S" model on a prestigious anniversary year.

 

[Mac 128]

That's a great point actually, about bluetooth battery waste and the fact they aren't replaceable and the huge impact on the environment. I'd also add that Apple is at fault for forcing a proprietary connector instead of a universal connector, there will be massive environmental waste from all the new lightning headphones and adapters that Apple is shipping, and people buying.

Its not really a great point. The fact is we have a choice to make every day of our lives. Protect the environment, or make out lives more convenient. The batteries may not be replaceable but I'd far prefer using them as they are than compromised to allow for the batteries to be replaced. As long as I recycle them appropriately, then the impact to the environment will be minimal. Apple has shown a strong commitment to this, so I give them a pass on designing things the way they want. It's only environmental waste, if the batteries are disposed of improperly/illegally. So it's not about curtailing Apple's designs, it's about educating the customer.