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Apple Removed Headphone Jack From New iPhones Because It Owns Largest Bluetooth Headphone Company (theverge.com)
Apple's new iPhones -- the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus -- don't have the headphone jack. The company's SVP Phil Schiller said the move signifies "courage" from the company to put a 100-year-old audio standard to bed. But there could be one more reason for this transition to a Bluetooth/Wireless headphones future: it owns the largest Bluetooth headphones company -- Beats. The Verge reports: More likely is that the lack of a headphone jack on the iPhone -- and increasingly, on Android phones as well -- will lead to an uptick in sales of Bluetooth headphones. And it just so happens that Apple owns the number one Bluetooth headphone company, Beats. Beats brings in more revenue from Bluetooth headphones than LG, Bose, or Jaybird, according to NPD figures released in July. In terms of unit sales, it controls over a quarter of the Bluetooth headphone market. Bluetooth headphones are also disproportionately profitable among headphones. NPD has them accounting for 54 percent of all dollars spent in the market, despite representing only 17 percent of units sold in the U.S.. These headphones sell at high prices with high margins, and Apple's company is making the best of it so far. Sales of Bluetooth headphones are already growing, with units up 64 percent year over year according to NPD's US figures. And Apple's removal of the headphone jack is likely to give them another boost.
Gasp! It's like...everything they do is about making more money! I never realized!
Well, that is one very cynical view. Of course they might have reasons that benefit users. The fact that they offer an adapter rather dispels this theory. Get good Bluetooth headphones and you won't want to go back. Hint: x.
With one of these: http://appleplugs.com/
The iPhone "Jack off". Suits the product and it's customers perfectly.
Headphones, and your ears, are analog. The signal gets converted from digital to analog before you can hear it, and is amplified. So, do you want to use the amplifier in the phone, which has a nice big battery and a powerful amplifier that can also drive the speaker, and that can easily dissipate any heat from the amplifier, or the amplifier in your headphone, which if it's an in-ear one is going to have limitations regarding the battery and the amplifier.
It is not even theoretically possible for a Bluetooth headphone to make better sound. At best, it's the same. The only benefit is that you lose the cord.
This was an astonishingly cynical move and I hope that Apple loses customers over it.
Bruce Perens.
The iPhone 8 will require special glasses to see the screen. Apple will congratulate itself for its bravery in leading the industry in such a move.
Bruce Perens.
I think the largest bluetooth headset seller is some anonymous company in China. The cheap BT headsets you can see on Amazon or Alibaba mostly all look the same, so I suspect are just barely-rebadged versions of the same thing. And surely their volume collectively exceed the sum of Beats, Bose and (never heard of them) Jaybird. And by "volume" I don't just mean units, but as the unit number is so enormous, I also mean dollars.
As for their actual motivations etc...whatever.
I bet you just love the way Apple knows you're so cool and tech savvy you'll never need to choose between charging your phone and listening to music.
And the convenience of having a pair of headphones that work on just about any device anywhere in the world capable of producing sound kind of sucks, too.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Headphones do not come with 0% career financing like cell phones. Someone who owns one expensive wired pair to use at home and other for exercise may well be tempted to check out Android offerings rather than putting up with the hassle of two dongles to listen and charge at the same time.
Like a lot of technologies, people cling to it because it's familiar, unchanged, simple.
Wired headphones never need to be recharged. That is vastly more important to me on a day-to-day basis than dealing with a cord, which has never really been a problem.
Well, that is one very cynical view. Of course they might have reasons that benefit users. The fact that they offer an adapter rather dispels this theory. .
How so?
The fact they offer and adaptor for sale tends to confirm the theory rather than dispel it.
Beyond this you have two problems.
First and foremost is that people hate adaptors. They're a pain in the arse, they get lost, forgotten or stolen. They're difficult to replace at short notice (and cost a kings ransom when they can). They're also quite fragile, on a mobile device this is going to be a huge problem.
Secondly there is only one port, so this means you can charge OR use the adaptor. A lot of people only use the 3.5 mm jack for connecting to the aux in on their cars, its simpler and better quality when using nav and music applications, especially if you're using the one on the head unit and the other on the phone. This means that people wont be able to charge and use their device at the same time in the car, trust me, a lot of people will do this and rely on their commute to charge their phone. Also, they're another device you need to charge and keep charged.
Get good Bluetooth headphones and you won't want to go back. Hint: x.
Get a cheap pair of wired headphones and listen to the huge increase in quality.
I have a pair of $30 Senn HD201's which aren't particularly high end, they are far better than $300 bluetooth headphones I've used. When you're on a call I can instantly identify anyone using bluetooth as it introduces static, echos and other artefacts, the cheaper devices also introduce noticeable delays.
Bluetooth produces a noticeable drop in audio quality due to compression which is due to limited bandwidth.
I'm sorry that you've drunk the cool aid and need to defend everything that Apple does, but they've seriously screwed up here.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
If you really care about audio quality, you should be pretty excited about headphones that can draw power from the lightning connecter... that allows for better processing, better noise cancellation, and so on all for headphones that never need a battery.
That's something that couldn't happen if Apple stuck with audio jacks.
This doesn't make sense. The DAC is the most important component of digital audio quality. Moving it to the headphones does none of these things (digital processing is still in the phone) and takes the control of audio quality entirely out of Apple's hands. This seems counter to their general philosophy.
As for the wireless part, it seems like Apple is trying to make that as nice as possible, with as high a quality as possible. That too is better if you care about audio at all.
So why so down on such an obvious improvement that helps wired AND wireless users?
This also doesn't make sense. Bluetooth compression is known for reducing audio quality, even if you ignore the various reported connectivity issues.
Replacing an old standard without an improved solution (even if proprietary) is very unlike Apple. My only conclusion is this is a money grab. It shows them struggling to differentiate themselves in the market. I think they may have jumped the shark.
And the most impressive part is how completely, utterly terrible Beats headphones actually are!
Really, go and try some reasonable Sennheiser, Koss, AKG, Pioneer, hell even Sony...
Beats are just plain out terrible, especially for the money.
But then owners are not buying sound are they, ts all about a stylized 'b' on the ears...
The number of people I have donated older Sennheiser phones to who have then given away their
much more expensive Beats amazes me. PX200 for travel, HD280Pro for home. both cheap 2nd hand.
But, yes the move by apple is rather transparent.
#1, take attention off the lack of other improvements in the 7 by doing something controversial.
#2, improve Beats/Apple profit by gouging the fanbase even more.
It seems thats what passes for innovation these days - that and crying over un(fairly)paid tax being called in.
Sad, really.
And, forcing everyone to use bluetooth, so they can sell more Beats bluetooth headphones, is exactly why there's no way to plug regular headphones into the iPhone 7. This is why they don't even include a free adapter in the box with each and every single iPhone.
Oh, hang on a minute...
Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
Let us be a bit pragmatic about this by analysing the electronics and the data stream.
I'm a fan of the jack because it allows me to choose the headphones. The only thing I don't have control over is the DAC in the phone.
For general listening Beats are a heavy headphone and after seeing a construction breakdown on /. some time ago found their specs to be average. A good set of senheiser headphones would be a better investment. Bose look and sound good however I had a hard time tracking down specs last time I was shopping. I'm pretty fussy and my headphones have a response range 16Hz - 28kHz and handle 200mw of power. I have to wear them alot for mixing so they have to be leightweight and they also have interesting features like auto muting when I take them off. I found AKGs to be perfect here.
Apple's decision means I can choose higher quality DACs for headphones however it also means the end of the era for lightweight quality headphones as it means these devices will have to carry a battery, receiver, DAC, amplifier *AND* audio membrane. More likely, significantly more functionality.
Considering iTunes accepts music at 96Khz for the masters it is likely this is the next phase of innovation Apple is suggesting where DAC converter in headphone technology improve as consumer grade headphones are able to process higher bitrates with better sound quality and still deliver an enjoyable power delivery and battery life. What it means for people like me is that my high quality gear exposes the limitations of the phone.
It also means all the associated DAC technology on the phone only has to match the bandwidth of the phone's speakers. I can see why this is a plus for manufacturers as I doubt the DAC in many phones now could deliver the dynamic range that my AKGs can handle and the only way to improve that is to have better DACs and amplifiers on the phone. By not having to have that shootout with other phone manufacturers all manufacturers reduce cost, complexity and, power consumption of their phones.
However it also means the end of private analogue connection to the phone as locally eavesdroping on unencrypted bluetooth connections becomes more probable.
This is a new type of market, that apple is creating because now they race is to produce phone headphones that are hyped or actually can deliver quality audio to consumers at a rate more frequent than the delivery of a new phone. Neither bad or good, but a change to the market for headphones.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
If you care about audio quality you use a USB DAC+Headphone amp, and a real pair of wired headphones.
If you care about convenience, there were plenty of BT headphones before, this just removes the option for people who find wires more convenient than fiddling with headphone batteries.
Speaking of DACs, can anyone recommend a good USB => line level DAC, instead of a headphone amp? I want something to hook speakers to rather than headphones, and paying for a headphone amp just to get the DAC seems wasteful.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I never used the headphone jack on my phone. While I go running, I use a BT headset and my car also has BT connectivity.
Besides, an adapter is included. It's not that big of a drama.
The biggest complainers fall in the category of either:
- "I will never buy an iPhone, but now it lost the headphone jack, I will certainly NEVER going to buy one!!", raging fists included.
- People who consider everyone who buys this as "dumb" or "sheeple". However, the missing audio-jack is not a deal-breaker for most current iPhone users. There are lots of other interesting upgrades that makes current iphone users consider upgrading.
- People who, for some reason, are offended that other people buy products that they personally don't like.
The only users who have real reasons to complain, are the ones who use both the audio-jack and the lightbolt adapter at the same time (like when your car doesn't have BT yet, and use the aux-in option). But that's like 1 or 2 percent of the current iPhone users.
Oh, and I'm not an Apple "fanboy" btw, so spare me the insults
...You are over-qualified and under-paid. If we give you a raise, we will break the cosmic balance of the universe.
"More likely is that the lack of a headphone jack on the iPhone -- and increasingly, on Android phones as well..." OK, what Android phones DON'T have an audio jack? Maybe some obscure brand/model nobody has ever heard of, but on every Android phone I see being sold by T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and everybody else, there is an audio jack. So why the "and increasingly, on Android phones as well"? As to BT headphones, I've yet to find one I'd use. I've bought many of them, from expensive Bose, Beats, Sennheiser, on down. Every one of them has the same problem: dropouts. Annoying frequent audio dropouts unless I hold my phone right up next to them, which defeats the purpose. And this is with several models of phones from various manufacturers. BT works great for car audio system, but for headphones, a big NOPE. Give me a good wired model.
IMO Apple should have waited one more iteration, because Bluetooth 5 is just around the corner and will have HD audio as part of the spec and there would be less issues, better compatibility with other device.... Wait, nevermind. I see what they did there.
A dongle is not a port.
You don't need to remove a port to offer lightning headphones.
Next you'll be arguing 1-button mice are better.
There's really no upside to remove the port, is the sad thing. There are thinner phones with headphone jacks. There's always dead space to fit the port, so you're not getting battery life. Waterproof headphone jacks are old hat. This is just Apple being either malicious or stupid.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.