Six Colors:
Is Apple removing the headphone jack from the iPhone? Nobody really knows, though rumors have swirled for quite a while now. A recent exchange between Nilay Patel and John Gruber returned this debate to the foreground last week.
Of course, the truth is that it’s very hard to talk about this rumor in the absence of actual information. Any move like this by Apple would be accompanied with a raft of other information, including Apple’s rationale, any new features enabled by the removal, and of course adapters for existing hardware. In the absence of all that, people are able to fill in the blanks with bogeymen or rainbows depending on their point of view.
As Snell says, “This is a tech unicorn, an unannounced feature on a nonexistent product, and it’s important to keep that in mind.” But it’s also helpful to remember, Apple has done this kind of thing many times in the past and it’s always (generally) worked out – after a period of time when tech pundits bitch, moan and complain about it.
However, as some of us have pointed out ad nauseam, they usually have a good reason. To date, none of the people who excuse this possible change with ‘well Apple does this’ can come up with any reason that might drive it. Apple does NOT just remove stuff for the sheer hell of it, contrary to what some of you seem to think. They seem to do it for one or more of a few reasons:
1) It is a technology on the way out (decreasing market use) and saves them costs (Floppy drives).
2) It is a technology on the way out (decreasing market use) and enables a design that isn’t possible with the thing being removed (VGA, ethernet etc for the Air).
3) It’s a technology that’s mature, but they want to move the market in another direction, e.g .the Ethernet port on some laptops being removed and wifi being the one way to network on them.
None of those apply here with the possible exception of #3 and even that presumes that they are going to push Bluetooth as a solution. However a) they could do that simply by giving away BT earbuds with the 7 with no jack removal and b) BT is problematic for a lot of people (see The Wirecutter reviews of BT headphones, esp the exercise earbuds. People have issues with even the $100 buds).
As Snell points out, Apple isn’t perfect, either. There’s a disturbing tendency in a lot of the commentary that’s fine with this potential change that borders on “Apple can do no wrong, whatever they do will be the right thing!” which is a bad, blinding form of thinking for anyone who purports to actually be able to rationally comment on Apple. Faith != reason.
As an example of what is arguably a mistake, I think the blind insistence on a single port on the Macbook holds that machine back for example. Dual USB-C ports gets over almost all of the “one port!!?” objections and isn’t much of a difference. Alternately (and what I’d actually prefer), keeping the single USB C port but adding back the MagSafe power connector. Just a few weeks ago my foot got tangled in the power cord for my Air – and the MagSafe popped loose. With a Macbook, my shiny new machine would have spun off the sofa onto the ground. That’s better, how?
So many words, so much energy spent on this topic. So pointless. Either Apple will remove the headphone jack or they won’t. And you’ll either like the move or you won’t. And your next phone will either be an iPhone or it won’t.
What is for sure, is that none of the words written by journalists and commenters will have any effect whatsoever on what Apple does.
I read the article but it seems Jason can’t help but argue with straw men. He is arguing with the short-sighted reasons provided by rumor sites and other tech pundits. I tried to stick with him but then when I got near the end of the article and he wrote this:
“Apple picks the right time to ditch old tech and replace it with new tech. I’m sympathetic to this argument. It’s like the old sports maxim that it’s better that you get rid of an aging player a year too early rather than a year too late. And in the past, Apple has ditched familiar tech aggressively and often been proven right.
But every time Apple ditched old tech, it was because the new tech offered appreciable, tangible benefits to what came before. Floppy drives were already too small and slow; users were buying things like Zip drives and writeable CDs were on the horizon”
after he had said the following:
“Eventually the pain of transition will go away. That’s the great thing about transitions—they tend to end. This, too, shall pass. The problem is, the headphone jack doesn’t seem to be going away from any other part of the world. If Apple makes this change, people who have to connect to those other devices will probably not be making a transition—they’ll just be carrying an adapter with them for the foreseeable future.”
and this:
“This will prime the pump for a 2017 iPhone with an edge-to-edge display. Assuming for a moment that an edge-to-edge display couldn’t accommodate a headphone jack, why would Apple remove features from this year’s iPhone to accommodate next year’s feature? At least such an iPhone would offer its edge-to-edge screen as a trade-off for the loss of the headphone jack. But with iPhone sales flat and the prospects for a third year with the same overall design language, would Apple want to hamstring the 2016 iPhone even more just to get the complaints out of the way a year early? That doesn’t sound like Apple to me.”
Well I’m sorry but you can’t think the removal of the floppy drive was a good idea while also thinking those other two things. Apple could easily have designed the 1998 iMac with a floppy and then the 2001 without one since it included a CD-RW as an option. The two iMacs did not have the same case or insides so they were redesigning anyway.
Jason’s argument seems to be, there is no reason to do this now and force us to carry around a dongle or because the next design will require it. He thinks that it should be changed only when it is required. I do not disagree with him on this point. But the problem is, he contradicts himself by not sticking to those guns when discussing the floppy drive that was missing from the original iMac. He talks about how users could use an external drive or wait a few years because CD-RWs were on the horizon. This is a blatant case of time making a decision look correct. I owned the original iMac. I loved it but I definitely missed the floppy and ended up buying an external drive that would read/write floppy disks and some proprietary 120MB disk. This did not make me dislike the iMac and in fact, a year later I had a cable modem and I was on my way to never using floppy disks again.
I’d read the linked article, but I’m overdue for flagellating myself with a USB-to-30-pin connector.
We’d need figures, but the removal of the floppy could have been motivated by data showing that the use was declining and that the decline was accelerating. That you missed it isn’t relevant. No one of us is the market.
You’ve cherrypicked the part about CDRW being on the horizon, but ignored that he says in the same sentence that people were already buying zip drives. He’s right – the floppy was on its way out because the volume of data we were moving around exceeded a single disk.
If it’s so pointless… why are you reading? Why are you commenting? Sorry, but this kind of reply always seems to be ridiculous – someone complaining that others are discussing something while they themselves are spending time on… the complaining.
To me, Apple’s reason seems obvious: they’ve figured out a way to make wireless headphones painless to use. Apple gets to ditch the bulky, single-use port; users no longer have to worry about aggravating tangles of wires that always get caught on stuff and have to be threaded though/around clothing, etc. The wireless headphones will have to be included with the phone to make this work.
There are really no serious problems with this approach. Pairing can be a simple a with the Pencil: just plug it into the lightning port. This would also be used for charging, solving that problem. The 15% or so who care about audio quality beyond what bluetooth provides wouldn’t be using the standard EarPods anyway, so they get 1) a lightning-to 1/8″ port adapter (extra cost), and 2) lightning headphones (by Beats and others) that actually improve audio quality over what the old analog port can offer.
Best of all, for most regular users (like me), this would be great! Wires are nasty, but I like most am still using the standard EarPods because of the friction involved in finding another approach. If Apple takes away the wires, and most of that friction, I’m a happy camper. Might be enough to compel an early upgrade.
I could be wrong, of course, but to me this is a simple, sensible approach that is very “Apple” and improves things for 90% of users right off the bat and almost 100% eventually.
I made sure not to cherrypick, so I didn’t miss that. It further bolsters my point. He thought that it was perfectly fine for them to remove the floppy, which required people to purchase something additional, but he has a HUGE problem with people needing to buy a new set of headphones or carry a dongle…
The bottom line is that there is absolutely no way you can say that the removal of the floppy drive didn’t inconvenience customers in some way. I want to be clear though, I am not saying Apple made the wrong decision in removing the floppy or that I would be okay or not okay with the removal of the headphone port. What I am saying is that there is no way that Jason can say that it was okay to remove the floppy drive before Apple provided a better replacement for it but then say the opposite when it comes to the headphone port. And that is what he is trying to do. He wants to have his cake and eat it too.
I am not taking a position on whether either decision was or will be right or wrong. I am simply saying, if the removal of the floppy drive was a good idea because people might be wanting to use a zip drive or the CD-RW was coming soon, then the removal of the headphone jack would have to be a good idea for the same reasons, because some people were wanting to use Bluetooth now and that the edge to edge screen iPhone is coming soon. In other words, people could use the zip drive whether or not the iMac came with a floppy drive, just like they can use Bluetooth now, regardless of whether or not there is a headphone port.
Coming up with great wireless headphones is not a reason to get rid of the headphone jack. It’s just another option.
Also, if Apple does release awesome wireless headphones I’m pretty sure they would sell them separately so iPhone 6 to 6s+ owners could use them too. It wouldn’t be worth it to give them away for free.
Here’s the thing that’s bugging me most about this whole issue. With all the other technologies Apple has gotten rid of that people are using to justify getting rid of the headphone jack, I don’t remember people calling for Apple to do it.
I don’t recall people saying, “This new machine better not have a floppy drive or ADB ’cause I’m so sick of them!” I didn’t hear people saying “I want a thinner, lighter MacBook even if it means no Ethernet, no DVD, and I can’t swap out the battery! I don’t care what it takes!” In fact, I seem to recall people getting kind of pissed at these changes because no one saw them coming. They all came out of left field. (The battery door thing was a huge stink!)
But this… the headphone jack… people are demanding it be put out of it’s misery. Never mind the fact that it’s the most stable tech in any device Apple has ever made! They’re coming at it with torches and pitchforks! I just can’t wrap my head around it. I think it’s just people letting the idea of second guessing Apple go to their heads.
I agree with Jason Snell. He’s perfectly articulated what I’ve been saying all along, there’s no good reason to get rid of the headphone jack.
It is a reason, in the sense that it would help make this “the right time” to do it, with other benefits accruing as well. There have been some recent improvements to bluetooth, the progression of which Apple has been involved in. If my speculation turns out to be correct, then almost certainly this has been part of the plan for years – and we all know that’s how Apple likes to work
I imagine they’d sell the headphones separately, as well; but including them with the new phone would be an elegant way to introduce them, and it’s the only way I see that users would consider it a win.
Because I was surprised by the length of your reply, not to mention all the other ink written on the topic and the pointlessness of it just struck at this particular time. Feel free to ignore me, just like Apple is free to ignore you 🙂
And fwiw, my comment was an observation of the futility, not a complaint and not particularly aimed at you, just at all the commentary on this subject.
Yes, some new Apple tech people get ticked off at because it removes something they liked. But that is a simple way of obscuring the more complex truth, which is that the majority of people really don’t care very much at all, while a vocal minority express their opinion one way or another. Some of Apple’s changes have been more in front of the curve (Lightning port, losing the floppy), others have been arguably late (bigger-screened iPhones) and the degree of vitriol has varied accordingly.
If Apple removes the headphone jack, make no mistake, the internet will be up in arms, or so it will seem. But most people won’t care; they’ll just buy a new phone when they’re ready and live with the change; others like me will welcome it but won’t make as much noise and won’t be noticed.
Over time, the change will improve peoples’ lives in a small but meaningful way, just as so much Apple tech has; it will give Apple more latitude in building a better device; and it will probably be copied within a year by Samsung.
I can think of one right off the top of my head: Hard to waterproof.
Is it true? I have no idea. But it would certainly be a good reason.
Yes… actual reasons to remove the headphone jack:
1) It’s big! Not just diameter, but length. And awkwardly shaped; hard to package. Apple fights for every cubic mm; this would be a relatively huge design coup.
2) Complexity: despite its apparent simplicity, adding this part to every device costs money at every step of design and manufacturing
3) Any desired balance among:
a)The ability to make a smaller device. (Through every future generation).
b) The ability to improve battery life. (Again, through every future generation).
c) The ability to add other internal components that may be beneficial in the future, without increasing size relative to today.
Any time Apple can take something out of its devices, all these benefits result. We could all be dragging around phones with VGA and RS-232 ports, but we don’t, because Apple mercilessly cuts fat wherever it can.
So while some might not think these benefits justify the port’s removal, don’t just flat out say there’s no reason to do it. It has all the classic benefits Apple always goes for; and if they can make it beneficial for users, then so much the better.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 is waterproof with a headphone jack. Not a good reason.
I agree that, if Apple includes compatible headphones in the box, most people won’t care. Even more mind boggling that so many people care now.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 claims to be waterproof but isn’t.
Screw this, I’m hoping for a turntable on the iPhone 7+.
I don’t have problem at all with this. Personally I hate wired headphone and can’t wait to get rid of it but the thing is.. there should be benefits for it. Something like better audio quality for iTunes/Apple Music, for example.
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Apple knows it will lose sales if it removes the headphone jack. They’ll keep it around. For now.
You should go old school. I’ve got a Cat-o-9-Firewire/30Pin Connectors around here I’ll loan to you.
I want a pico projector that only shows Mutoscope flip cards.
Apple rarely gives anything away for “free”. All headphones or remotes purchased with Apple products are included in the purchased price (they are not “free”). That’s like Adobe telling me we have free upgrades! After we paid for software assurance…
You don’t need no stinkin’ headphones for “What the Butler Saw”.
I’mma gonna pair a 27″ iMac with a car battery and a voltage regulator!
or Apple Music actually working…
well water “proof” has a variety of meanings… I bought a waterproof case – the best rated most expensive at the time – IIRC and I had to test it before – to double check and it worked for a time – but is only rated to 10m for 30 minutes – so it is still no good for diving – even in the shallows and if the product breaks – there goes may main communication, contact, life device.
This is why I love GoPros! and other stand alone cameras (video and still) … even if they “break”, you still have y our main device handy. The waterproof case – to 40m also is nice and I have no issues diving with that one.
Also, a friend of mine took her phone – Samesung Galaxy S7 to a water fall… in the water fall – she was very careful and the phone was fine – I would not have done that with a “regular phone”.
Bah. In my day, you could get a real self-punishment on with SCSI-I. These kids today with their lightweight Firewire.
Related: what hump?
I’m not sure what your point is. Obviously the headphones are built into the cost of the device. Going from wired to wireless headphones doesn’t change this but could still be a benefit for users.
Working for me from the beginning. A bit nuisance at first but getting better and better.
Well, when people talking about small, handheld devices say waterproof, they really mean water-resistant. Like a watch that is only waterproof to a certain depth. I guess that’s what I assumed you meant because I expect you to know that a true waterproof iPhone is virtually impossible if there are any ports. I think the waterproof that people are looking for is just good enough to avoid the sort of water damage that voids a warranty, which is all the S7 has. And we both know that’s actually water-resistant.
Seriously. I used a PowerBook SCSI cable myself. Better grip.
I remember on my Mexico trip a few years ago seeing a bunch of people using iPhones in the swimming pools in water resistant cases. They said it was no big deal.
I couldn’t do that. Even if the phone itself was water PROOF, I’d still have to fight myself to get the phone in the water.
Right. Nobody expects 100% water proof. What I expect is for it to be good enough for the warranty to cover water damage — unlike the S7.
But the design of the 3.5mm port seems especially problematic to me. Vendors have been trying to water proof these for years, and to my knowledge the best we have is still the rubberized portplug approach.
The S7 doesn’t cover the headphone jack to achieve water resistance. So waterproofing is still not a good reason to get rid of the jack.
Nitpick – Apple never used RS232, either DB25 or DB9.
They always used RS422, and from the Plus onward, on DIN-8 connectors.
Apple hated legacy serial so much they dumped it two years after the first Mac…
Centronics-50 Or Nothing!
Pfft. A difference which makes no difference is no difference.
And the S7’s level of waterproofing is not actually covered by warranty.