Can you imagine your phone without a headphone jack?

Hardly.

The new Apple iPhone 7 may ditch the 3.5 mm jack to earn 1mm slightness, says Japanese Mac Otakara.com, a “reliable source” of Apple rumors. Their solution is to connect headphones using Bluetooth or their Lightning plug, now mainly used for charging and connecting the device to computers.

3,5mm Jack on iPhone 6s (left side)
image: i2.wp.com

This news reminds us of 2012, when Apple changed their 30-pin dock connector in iPhone 5. Every music dock system, charger, USB cable and other device could be thrown out once someone wanted to get the new model. (Who isn’t familiar with the situation: »Does anyone have an iPhone charger?« »Yes, take it.« »Oh, I need the new one.«) But it was an important change only to Apple users and their specific manufacturers. If this development is really going to happen, the whole audio market will be affected.

Headphones will be separated in two classes – normal ones and Apple ones. Even though a DA (digital-to-analog) converter will be available for sure to be able to use the old ones. The situation is not easily solvable. The market at the moment is not yet prepared for the change, even though Apple has quietly released the MFi program in June 2014 which allows third-party manufacturers to use Lightning plug as audio output. (And the rumor of leaving the socket revived that time also.) Two brands dealt with this idea so far – Philips which has one model at the moment and Beats which was acquired by Apple last year. Dropping this piece of information may alarm the others – hey, wake up, count with Apple users, prepare yourself to the new demand.

Philips M2L/27 headphone - connected with Lightning
image: theguardian.com

Considering the tendencies that the mobile market features, every model tends to be thinner and have bigger screens. Breaking the international standard 3.5 jack must be a milestone in this battle – and Apple is known as a company that takes these decisions. If they do not apply it now, they will later, but there is no doubt that all the signs are showing one path – the future of iPhones without a jack.

source: MacOtakara, index.hu

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