by Jason Snell
Report: iPhone 7 to drop headphone jack
Apple dropping the headphone jack from the iPhone has been a rumor bogeyman for ages now, but a new report from a Japanese Blog suggests that Apple is planning on making the switch in the iPhone 7 in order to make the device even thinner. Headphones on the new model would connect via Bluetooth or the Lightning connector.
When the original iPhone launched, its recessed headphone jack forced a lot of users to buy adapter cables in order to use their favorite headphones with the iPhone. It wasn’t great, people complained, and Apple changed the design with the iPhone 3G. If Apple ever dumps the standard headphone jack, there will be another round of adapter purchases, and plenty of complaints. (And since no other device-maker is ever going to adopt Lightning as a connection standard, it would mean that as long as there are still wired headphones in the world, the iPhone would require an adapter to use any of them.)
We live in a world where a whole lot of people (myself included) own nice third-party headphones. Apple even bought a company, Beats, that made its name in selling aftermarket headphones. Forcing all the owners of those headphones to buy an adapter in order to eke out an extra millimeter of iPhone thinness seems like a pretty bad trade-off to me. That’s why I hope this rumor isn’t accurate—but honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it is.
[via 9to5 Mac]