This morning, Apple confirmed the fears of many technology enthusiasts and headphone owners worldwide: the 3.5mm headphone jack would not be making its way to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. In its place, the company will rely on three alternatives: a Lightning-compatible pair of new included EarPods; a pair of $159 wireless Bluetooth AirPods that require no physical connection; and a free dongle to connect old, analog headphones to the device. When describing this change, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller gave a peculiar defense.
Read next: Our iPhone 7 and 7 Plus review
"The reason to move on: courage. The courage to move on and do something new that betters all of us," he said onstage. Those words were uttered with a hand-waving grandiosity seemingly at odds with what some consider an anti-consumer move that may kick off a bitter standards war.
The comment has immediately been scrutinized by eager live stream-watching Twitter users, who've acted fast to mash up the word "courage" with all sorts of Apple blunders and draw ludicrous comparisons to real-world historical acts. Here's a taste:
Some might call it a blunder. Others could say Schiller's comments are representative of the trademark Apple arrogance, indicative of a company culture in which doing what's logical and consumer-friendly is often conflated with doing what Apple executives think is best for its own product lines and for the industry, standards be damned.
Of course, Apple has often been correct in its decisions to leave beyond tired technology (see optical disc drive and flash support). The company may prove right again in its bid to popularize wireless headphones and push the industry toward a more up-to-date connector. We won't know for quite some time.
But we do know what'll take real courage going forward — not being a model and wearing these things in public:
Comments
I know everyone is going to do their takes on this one (and I’ve even seen people do moral hot takes on it). My thing is simply: How are we going to charge and listen to wired at the same time?
Another question, are the tech for these phones going to be accessible to all (most likely being free) OR are we going to see it adopted for royalty sales which will then get forced into other phones (most likely is going to happen)?
By Kirielson on 09.07.16 3:10pm
$99 ‘charge and listen’ dongle ofc.
By britinsb on 09.07.16 3:12pm
What’s interesting is that they haven’t even announced an adapter like this.
Want to listen to something and charge your phone? Too bad
Want to use your Square reader to accept payments and charge your phone? Too bad
By higherstate on 09.07.16 3:40pm
The new iPhones work a good time from the battery, so any normal user would usually never face a dilemma whether to charge or to listen. You just charge overnight, and that is it.
Besides, it is weird how people are saying that they would be all right if Apple would go USB-C-only rather than Lighnting-only no-jack decision, considering the fact that there will be almost a billion-strong installed base of Lightning devices (owned by people with some money), so the probability of manufacturers coming with products for this connector is dramatically higher than for USB-C that almost has no use yet.
By UsernameAndPassword on 09.07.16 3:51pm
Never?
You sure?
By Daniel Castro on 09.07.16 4:02pm
You skipped half of the characteristics, what was "usually". It means that most of people never, ever needed to simultaneously listen to the music and to charge. The rabid smartphone users that dry out the battery through half of a day AND are constant music listeners are a small minority.
By UsernameAndPassword on 09.07.16 4:51pm
I personally have NEVER charged my phone while having headphone’s in, the thought of it just seems uncomfortable. Also seeing that I use Bluetooth headphones more-so than wired one’s these days, it’s even less of a concern. When my phone is charging I’m usually doing some other task on my laptop or playing music through a bluetooth speaker. If I’m somewhere like an airport, it’s the bluetooth headphones or using some other App & not listening to music. I hate being encumbered by too many wires. I’m hoping we see wireless charging soon & the removal of the lightning port as well, wireless is simply the future & this is one more step towards that.
By Black Dude on 09.07.16 6:21pm
You’ve never been on a long car journey in a car with no bluetooth audio, while using GPS?
A good 2 hour ride with audio out the jack, plus GPS plus screen on.. you’d wish you could also charge it so its usable at the other end of the drive for the rest of your day – or to be able to drive the two hours back
By JragarV on 09.07.16 8:40pm
That’s a really good example. I personally haven’t. Doesn’t Apple have a new slogan, "there’s a dongle for that." I’m sure there will be one.
By Black Dude on 09.07.16 9:49pm
I charge and listen every single night, listening to music to help me fall asleep.
With the iPhone 7, my options are:
None of these options particularly excite me. Glad I just picked up a 6s which should last me a while. Very unhappy with Apple today.
By jimmyjangler on 09.07.16 11:19pm
Or charge iPhone & have music playing through a speaker, I don’t think you are a majority. You cannot please everyone in the desire to push technology forward. Many were pissed off at the lack of a QWERTY Keyboard on iPhone, a seemingly unnecessary omission at the time – folk like the one’s on this forum being the most vocal – most of us moved on with our lives & are doing just fine, while at the behest of few nearly every major player followed in suit..
By Black Dude on 09.07.16 11:27pm
Listening to it thru a speaker isn’t always an option, especially when you’re trying not to disturb others around you. I’m with jimmyjangler on this. This just sucks, and it’s why I’ll never buy another iPhone again.
By Analog Spirit 2.0 on 09.07.16 11:37pm
Using a speaker isn’t an option with my partner sleeping next to me every night.
What is pushed forward here? This is only an inconvenience. We’re stuck with lower sound quality over bluetooth headphones, or are forced to use an adapter with wired headphones.
This isn’t an improvement. Nothing was pushed forward today. We gained nothing that we didn’t have before. But we did lose choice.
By jimmyjangler on 09.07.16 11:40pm
Exactly. I mean, I can already use wireless headphones with my existing iPhone 6 if I wanted to, so what exactly have we gained? Nothing but impracticality and a big hassle as far as I can see. I don’t like BT headphones either because they also need to be charged, and I know I’d probably forget to charge them so they might (read: will) die on me at the worst possible time and will gradually lose their ability to hold a charge anyway, plus I’ve yet to find a pair that didn’t sound like shit (static and drop-outs). So this is it for me. Maybe that Sony Xperia XZ might be my next, if it’s actually worth a damn (and available).
By Analog Spirit 2.0 on 09.08.16 12:07am
You guys will simply fall to the wayside in pursuit of a wireless digital age if you cannot adapt. Plain & simple. Companies have already begun to drop headphone jacks & I’m sure more will follow suit in the near future, it’s the inevitable future.
By Black Dude on 09.08.16 1:11am
We shall see. Newer isn’t always necessarily better, nor is it always necessarily more practical. And I don’t see the 3.5 mm jack going anywhere anytime soon. Not with billions of new and old devices out there that have them.
By Analog Spirit 2.0 on 09.08.16 1:39am
Don’t be so sure. Apple has been wrong before.
By Vasp on 09.08.16 5:35am
Examples?
By frost1 on 09.18.16 6:15pm
Historically, Apple thought they and IBM would dominate PC production and supply. This turned out to be a costly mistake.
More recently:
Firewire – FW didn’t take off. USB did instead.
Music subscription – Jobs didn’t think music subscription would be big. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/steve-jobs-rolling-stones-2003-interview-20111006
"The subscription model of buying music is bankrupt." – Steve Jobs
Camera on the iPod Nano – the off-position wasn’t a good idea and camera wasn’t exactly what consumers needed anyway, with smartphones coming to the fore. Subsequently removed for good reason.
iPad – not thinking that people will want a tablet.
"There are no plans to make a tablet. It turns out people want keyboards … We look at the tablet, and we think it is going to fail." – Steve Jobs interview with Walt Mossberg.
Antennagate – blown out of proportion, clearly, but Apple’s initial dismissive response didn’t help.
Larger iPhones – Jobs was critical of larger phones/phablets.
"No one is going to buy that." – Steve Jobs, Apple press conference 2010 on Antenna issues. In fact Jobs cited OEMs making larger phones to side-step the antenna issue.
Dropping Google Maps – It might be strategic, but the initial quality of Apple’s Maps was truly bad – it still isn’t as good as Google Maps.
Collusion with printers on ebook pricing – the courts disagreed with Apple’s claim that the move was innocent and not anticompetitive.
Smaller iPads – Steve Jobs initially limited the smallest iPads to 10-inch:
"Apple’s done extensive user-testing on touch interfaces over many years, and we really understand this stuff. There are clear limits of how close you can physically place elements on a touch screen before users cannot reliably tap, flick or pinch them. This is one of the key reasons we think the 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps." – Steve Jobs – Apple 2012 earnings call. This was 2 years before iPad Mini (7.9inch)
Apple’s purchase of the Sapphire Glass manufactory – Apple thought they could make a bigger slice of sapphire glass. Turns out even Apple can buy into overhype: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/11/apple-and-sapphire-supplier-will-finally-bury-their-439-million-hatchet/
I didn’t even research… most of this right on the first page of a google page. I try to limit the mentions to those that are more credible/business related.
By Vasp on 09.18.16 11:00pm
It’s the future, yes, but it’s not an improvement. Not with Apple’s solution to a problem that didn’t exist.
I mean seriously…what’s your solution to charging while listening? We’re just not allowed anymore and we should shut up about it?
By jimmyjangler on 09.08.16 12:37pm
"There’s a dongle for that." – Apple, 2016
By Black Dude on 09.08.16 4:22pm
What’s with this sudden obsession with "lower" sound quality? As if we’re all suddenly audiophiles. My bluetooth powerbeats I use for workouts sound great, Bluetooth is as good, if not better than the headphones that come with most phones.
By frost1 on 09.18.16 6:15pm
It’s not "sudden", at least not for me. I’ve been testing out BT headphones for years, and have yet to find a pair that can match the quality of even my low-end Grados. Believe me, I want to find a pair that works.
I’m no audiophile, but when I want to sit and listen to music, I reach for my wired phones. BT is fine, I guess, for the gym or public transit, when your’e looking for distraction or something on in the background. But the difference is obvious when you’re in a quiet place, focusing on the music.
Besides…lower quality is lower quality. How in the world is this okay? You really don’t mind getting less than you used to from your devices?
By jimmyjangler on 09.22.16 12:46am
Not to mention the uproar if Apple were to release a new phone with a slightly shittier screen resolution. Why do we care about how things look, but don’t seem to care about how they sound?
By jimmyjangler on 09.22.16 12:49am
For the most part people don’t give a shit about the slight differences in medium to high quality sound. The general populace buys the cheapest headphones that holds them over on their commute or flight. Beats themselves are more of a fashion statement than an interest in true high quality sound.
I just find it funny how the quality of Bluetooth headphones went from a footnote or minor point in most people’s comments to all of a sudden a deal breaker in regards to the new iPhone. Bluetooth at the very least sounds as good as the crappy headphones that come with phones. Better, in my instance because they block out ambient noise and the shitty ones don’t.
Your screen resolution analogy doesn’t hold up in my opinion because again, the quality isn’t taking a nose dive just because Bluetooth is being used.
By frost1 on 09.26.16 1:31pm