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Why Apple Ditched the Headphone Jack

For chrissakes, stop complaining about it. This is what progress looks like

By Rain Noe - September 8, 2016

in Tech | Design Business | Consumer Electronics

Apple's new iPhones don't have the 3.5mm jack. Neither does Motorola's Moto Z. Get over it. These companies, and others in China, ditched the standard jack for a very simple reason: It's obsolete, and it's going away. Intel's been pushing their USB-C standard as the best choice for a replacement, while Apple reckons their proprietary Lightning connector is better.

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I don't want to re-buy my pricey, treasured Bose noise-canceling headphones, but this is what progress looks like. The 3.5mm jack requires bulky shielding to prevent interference as it's analog. It eats up space that could be better used with a larger battery or camera hardware.

And by moving to a digital standard like USB-C or Lightning, more functionality can be crammed into the pipe. More companies can get into the noise-canceling game without having to license Bose's technology, and this will hopefully increase competition and drive prices down. It's a lot easier to enhance digital audio than analog.

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Apple will of course take the backlash for being among the first to ditch the port. The same thing happened when they got rid of the floppy disc drive and the CD drive. How sorry are we that those things are gone?

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P Z

8 years ago

Z

5Z

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Losing the 3.5mm jack isn't a big deal, replacing it with a proprietary connector is. Good luck plugging your lightning headphones into anything but a iPhone/iPad.

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Jonas Eriksson

8 years ago

Z

2Z

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I am sorry but nothing of these sentences makes any sense.

"I don't want to re-buy my pricey, treasured Bose noise-canceling headphones, but this is what progress looks like. The 3.5mm jack requires bulky shielding to prevent interference as it's analog. It eats up space that could be better used with a larger battery or camera hardware."
- Since the analog signal from the 3.5mm is already amplified and actually drives the loudspeakers it is much less sensitive to electromagnetic noise because it is so weak compared to the music signal. Also the human ear frequency, up to 35kHz, there are very few wireless/digital signals operating in that frequency range so every interference above 35kHz is not a problem because you cant hear it.
Now if the digital signal would be amplified near the loudspeaker then you have much higher demands on shielding because the signal have to travel so far and the signal operate in the other digital noise frequencies, so every interference gets amplified or the entire signal gets ignored because it have been corrupted.

"And by moving to a digital standard like USB-C or Lightning, more functionality can be crammed into the pipe. More companies can get into the noise-canceling game without having to license Bose's technology, and this will hopefully increase competition and drive prices down. It's a lot easier to enhance digital audio than analog."
- I really doubt that BOSE's patents only covers the 3.5mm plug. There is a bluetooth variant now. Sennheiser also have noise cancelling bluetooth.

What I don't like with bluetooth is the latency and compression of the audio.

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Matt Herrmann

8 years ago

Z

2Z

Reply

Have you not railed against the over functionality of devices within the last six months? How then is this a justifiable reason to ditch the industry standard for headphones?

The reasons Apple did it are simple:

1. It's different and edgy. This is Apple's MO with their phones. Be technologically avant garde because their client base has to stand out as elite.

2. Proprietary technology means profit. Apple is one of the most restricted phone makers in the industry. This is one more way they can control who makes accessories for their products. Officially, it's all about ensuring a smooth interaction for the user. Reality though is that Apple makes a tidy profit licensing out their proprietaries.

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amunta nul

8 years ago

Z

2Z

Reply

Also the size thing is BS. Any respectable designer (not looking at you, Rain, still looking for evidence that you're a designer), has worked with "hard points." They're losing functionality over size; bad design etiquette.

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Eric Goodman

8 years ago

Z

1Z

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Two design goals in the smartphone have totally outlived their usefulness and have become counterproductive to better form and function 'progress' (as you put it, a weasel-word in design that says nothing).

Thin and light. We got those things years ago.

We don't need lighter phones, a bit heavier would allow us to consider materials better suited to the hell most of us put our phones through.

We don't need thinner phones than we've had for years. Sure it drives innovation in component design, but it also drives designers to toss things we're still using like headphone jacks (it's not progress, it's a bad compromise). Make it a couple mil thicker, give us a better battery and couple other useful somethings.

This is a lazy article devoid of critical or original thought.

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Michael R

8 years ago

Z

1Z

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Ditching a connector could be fine, but applauding to a proprietary connector and proprietary wireless chip (which won't work with older apple products), is the critical part.

That's not a user friendly decision, the main reason is a lock in effect. So it's not "courage" to ditch a working standard connector, it's a business decision. (I'm not even talking about the possibility of DRM-audio.)

Further with the saturation in the smartphone market, it's much more difficult to change standards (3.5 and Bluetooth Low Energy) compared with a emerging market segment.

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- Michael R
  
  Michael R
  
  8 years ago
  
  Z
  
  Z
  
  Reply
  
  Just realized the wireless is apparently Bluetooth after all.
  
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amunta nul

8 years ago

Z

1Z

Reply

How is the 3.5mm jack obsolete if every headphone currently has it? I'm sure audiophiles rejoiced when they heard their premium headphones now have to go through a dongle; we all know audiophiles love superfluous connectors. They should have kept the 3.5mm jack and made it obsolete by PROVING there is something better out there.

We don't have CD drives anymore because people stopped using CD's. We didn't stop using CD's because there were no drives anymore, it's because a better technology replaced it. Wireless technology is terrible as it stands, and no replacement for a cable. This is the equivalent of removing the CD drive while everyone still uses and owns CD's. It's forcing consumers to buy their slightly better version of a CD. It's a licensing cash cow.

Sure, lightning jack might be better than 3.5mm in many ways. But at what cost? They're creating problems while fixing different ones. How do you charge your phone if you want to listen to music? Great, so now we don't have licensing fees going towards Bose. Instead, now, we have licensing fees for the lightning cable. Doesn't help the consumer at all, just helps Apple.

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Paulin Guéry

8 years ago

Z

1Z

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Rancea, I'd be interested in your source! I've heard this before, but only as a hypothesis.
Besides, it is but one of two options; there are already headphones with an integrated DAC on the market, that work with a Lightning port.

For me the problem is not the removal of the jack; however it does make the real problem (Apple sticking to Lightning with no good reason) more serious, because now if you buy USB-C headphones that work with android phones, they won't work with an iPhone and reciprocally.
This is pretty rich from a brand that otherwise makes a laptop with nothing but a USB-C port... And a headphone jack.

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rancea bogdan

8 years ago

Z

1Z

Reply

Guys, the signal driving the lightning headphones is still analog! They are just using some of the pins to pass the analog signal from the DAC inside the iPhone to the headphones.

There are no headphones that can be driven by a digital signal. So this is not the reason Apple ditched the headphone jack. Please do some research.

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Mike Cheung

8 years ago

Z

1Z

Reply

I've been using Bluetooth headphones for a couple years now. My headphone port is just a lint collector at this point.

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Matt Chapman

8 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Those suggesting this has nothing to do with headphones and is probably more to do with those rogue app developers making hardware that connected using the headphone port as an analogue input/output connection (via an audio signal) - are probably spot on.
Now the only way to link hardware to your iPhone is via Bluetooth or the Lightning Port.
You can now wave goodbye to cheap and cheerful iPhone accessories!

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Matt Chapman

8 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Or just buy one of these... http://www.outdoortechnology.com/Shop/Adapt/

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Chauncey Saurus

8 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

What about those using square card readers and other similar small credit card processing readers?
Apparently the adapter doesn't work well with the reader because of the swiping movement

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David Phuah

8 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I'm not going to argue about the merits of the lightning port as the sole audio output but can people really stop talking about charging and listening to music at the same time. This happens I'm sure but it happens ALOT less than people seem to claim. Seriously how often do you have the iphone plugged in while listening to music? I admit I have done that but I end up using bluetooth when I'm charging.

Bluetooth is ready to take over wired audio - especially for the masses who are simply streaming 256kbps audio or youtube videos. with AptX (which Apple doesn't seem to support) and AAC codec supported inside bluetooth they produce good enough audio for 99% of iPhone users. The 1% are audiophiles and will 1) not use an iPhone 2) will have a seperate DAC connected to the iPhone (usually via the lightning port...) to power their power hungry headphones...

The transition will be painful for some users but honestly the freedom with wireless headphones are great - for a device that is generally used on the go. Take a look at all the GOOD headphones being released in Bluetooth - Bose QC35, Sennheiser Momentums, Parrot Zik (which by the way still uses the lower quality SBC codec), B&O H8... these are some of the company's higher end headphones with BT....

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Alex Farr

8 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

It's a proprietary connection, that's about as progressive as an iPhone 6 in jet black.

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Bradley Johnson

8 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

....but have you seen this?! :)

appleplugs.com

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r b

8 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

One thing that doesn't make a ton of sense to me, and why I wasn't jumping for joy when the 6's came out is why is the lens still sticking out? Why isn't it flush? Oh right, got to keep the the "thinnest i-Phone ever" as thin as it is now. Going flush should theoretically give them a little over 6% more space to work with inside the phone, while increasing it's stiffness in it's weakest dimension, this might even allow them to further optimize the case and thin out other areas allowing for more space. If removing the earbuds was even partially about more space for tech, increasing the thickness that 0.5mm theoretically nets you over 8 times as much space. You are Apple, be brave, make the phone / lens flush, don't get caught up in thickness claims when that thickness is past the point of user benefit. /rant

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